


As Brothers We Will Stand

by elrhiarhodan



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bharrisco, Canon Divergent, Dominance/submission, Dubious Science, Edging, F/M, Forced Prostitution, Harry as Ex-Military, Hero Kink, Hurt/Comfort, Jesse is Awesome, M/M, Orgasm Control, Rape, Rape Backstory, Self-cest, Service Kink, Spanking, Threesome, Time Travel, War of the Americas, Wells Family Feels, barrison, harrisco, rape in time of war
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-06-06
Packaged: 2018-06-07 04:03:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 26
Words: 65,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6784399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elrhiarhodan/pseuds/elrhiarhodan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Barry pulls Jesse and Cisco through the Speed Cannon and back to Earth-1, Zoom grabs Harry.  Before Barry can go back and rescue Harry, Jay tosses the breach-closing bomb, sealing the last portal to Earth-2 and condemning Harry Wells to death.</p><p>Barry and the rest of Team Flash refuse to believe that they can't go back and they do everything possible, take every risk, to reopen the breach and rescue Harry.</p><p>Completely canon-divergent from <b>Escape from Earth-2</b>, with much dubious science.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this [artwork](http://nupao.tumblr.com/post/139911424933/so-what-if-it-was-harry-instead-of-jesse-the-one) from the incredibly talented @nupao on Tumblr. 
> 
> This story is complete and will be updated daily. Tags will be updated as needed, but please pay attention to them and to the archive warnings. Not for the faint of heart.

Barry all but threw Cisco and Jesse to the floor as they emerged from the other side of the breach and turned to go back through the portal. He had to return to Earth-2 immediately. 

Zoom had Harry.

But Jay was there, the quark-matter device leaving his hands before Barry could stop him. The bomb went faster than he could catch it, and the last doorway to Earth-2 closed with a small, undramatic "pop".

"NO!"

Panting, trembling with rage and grief, Barry looked around him. Nothing had changed, but everything was different.

Jesse was on the floor, sobbing, and Cisco was next to her, his arms wrapped around himself as if he were about to vibrate apart.

Helpless now, Barry screamed at Jay, "Why did you close the portal? Harry's back there!" He pointed uselessly to the space he'd just come through.

"I had no choice – Zoom was going to follow you through. We can't let him come back."

"He has Harry!" 

Jay didn't seem particularly disturbed by that, and shrugged. "Then he's probably dead."

Barry remembered Harry's words from last night, his too-opaque warning about Jay Garrick, and did something he'd never thought he'd do to someone he'd considered a friend. He sucker-punched Jay Garrick in the face. Just one punch and it laid the bastard out flat.

Caitlin rushed to the man and stared at Barry in shock. He didn't say anything, but his own look of disgust must have spoken volumes. 

Garrick got up and left the room without a word. Caitlin didn't follow.

Joe hovered in the background, but Iris wrapped her arms around him, trying to give what comfort she could. He couldn't stifle a sob. "I left him – I shouldn't have left him."

No one said anything – there was nothing to say. Harry was stuck on Earth-2, in the clutches of a monster. The last breach was closed and there was no way to rescue him.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The last thing that Harry remembered seeing before passing out was the last breach closing – a shimmer of blueness, then _nothing_. The last thing he remembered hearing was Barry screaming _NO!_ , the sound echoing through the dimensions. The last thing he remembered feeling before Zoom's claws caressed his throat was relief at knowing that Jesse was safe, that Barry and Cisco were safe. Nothing else mattered, not even the knowledge that he was now a dead man.

Then the world went black.

Except he wasn't dead. Light, harsh and painful, burned through his eyelids, blinding him. He tried to block it, but his arms were chained above his head. He forced his eyes open and wasn't surprised to find himself in the same cell he'd rescued Jesse from maybe just a few hours ago.

He was surprised, though, that Zoom hadn't killed him. The monster had to know that the last breach was closed, that there was no way for him to get Barry's speed now.

A rhythmic tapping caught his attention – the masked man in the other cell was knocking on the wall.

When he was first here rescuing his daughter, Harry hadn't given the man in the mask much thought, despite Barry's insistence on rescuing him. The man in the mask was just another prisoner, one he couldn't help. But now, even though his brain was sluggish from pain and fear, he couldn't stop thinking, processing. If the man in the mask was in a cell like the one that Barry had been in, he must be something more than bait.

_Another speedster?_

Harry tried to make sense of the tapping. There was a pattern to it, but he couldn't quite figure it out. It wasn't Morse code – that would be too easy. The man stopped tapping and pointed to the floor. There was a diagram, mostly scuffed, but he recognized Jesse's handwriting and what she'd been doing. 

He could also see the three letters that Jesse had written out "J-A-Y". _Jay Garrick?_ Harry closed his eyes and tried to think. Why would the man in the mask have spelled out that damn failure's name?

The man started tapping again. Now, the code was easy enough to figure out now that he knew what it was, but he didn't get very far. Zoom appeared, as if from nowhere. 

_"Doctor Harrison Wells. How do you like your new accommodations?"_ The monster's voice was harsh, even in its stilted formality – as if it had swallowed lightning.

Harry carefully stepped on the diagram, leaned forward, and replied, "The space is quite … pleasant."

_"Don't get too comfortable, Doctor Wells."_

"Why? Because you're going to kill me? I think not."

_"For a man in chains, with no hope of rescue, you seem awfully sure of yourself."_

"You need me for something. Why bring me here? Why not kill me?"

Too suddenly, Zoom was inside the cage, so close Harry could smell him – a nauseating combination of burning rubber and ozone. _"Maybe I just want to torture you?"_

Harry shook his head, "No. You want something." He never thought he'd be negotiating with this monster, not like this.

 _"Or maybe I just want you?"_ To Harry's shock, Zoom's clawed hand cupped his crotch. _"You cost me one of my speedsters, Harrison Wells. You will pay for that. You will wish for death when I'm finished with you, and then we'll start again, and again, and again. Just as I did with your daughter."_

He managed to keep calm through most of Zoom's speech – until the point when the monster mentioned Jesse.

 _"Your vulnerabilities are so obvious, Harrison Wells. You should know just how delicious she was. Sweet. Like candy. Like the Flash's speed."_ Zoom's hand tightened around his genitals, the claws piercing denim and cotton.

Despite his anguish, Harry didn't struggle. There was no point, not if he didn't want to end up castrated. He looked out, across the room, at the man in the mask, who was slowly shaking his head. 

What was he trying to tell him, that Zoom hadn't violated Jesse? Harry clung to the memory of Jesse, and her filthy and worn – but otherwise intact – clothes and tried to believe that Jesse had escaped this horror. "That's all you are, Zoom? A garden variety rapist?"

The claws sank a little deeper. _"You think you'll talk your way out of this, Wells? See that pathetic creature over there? You're going to do to him what you didn't do to the Flash. And if you don't…"_

"What? You'll tear me apart?" Harry knew his bravado was going to run out soon but he had to keep going. "I'm not even going to pretend to bargain with you. I won't give you what you want. Not Flash's speed nor your other captive's. You've gotten all you're going to get from me."

Zoom didn't say anything, he just sliced the back of Harry's pants open with his claws.

_"I am going to enjoy this, Wells. I am going to enjoy tearing you apart."_

For most of his life, Harry had been good at compartmentalizing. On the battlefield and what came after. In the lab. Every aspect of his life except his daughter, he could just put things _away_. It wasn't too difficult now to separate his mind from the searing pain in his body. As Zoom grunted out his dubious pleasure, Harry worked through the Riemann Conjecture, a distraction he'd used to take him out of his body, as far back as his days as a POW.

He'd made it to ten to the twelfth power when the beast's claws punctured the skin at his hips, sinking in the muscles, the grasp infinitely more painful than the tearing agony in his ass.

Zoom finally stopped moving, let out a loud grunt, and pulled out of him. The chains holding him up were released and Harry collapsed to the floor – the cold stone welcome after the infernal heat of Zoom's body against his back.

Harry looked up and the sight was something he didn't want to remember. Zoom standing above him, his flaccid, blood-covered prick hanging out of the suit like some vile worm. This creature – for all his monstrosity – was still human. That was something to take small comfort in.

In a heartbeat, he was chained to the same pipe that held Jesse, but the length was short and he wouldn't be able to stand. Frankly, at this point, he didn't think he could.

Zoom kicked him. _"So, Wells – still unwilling?"_

Harry laughed, despite the pain. "I've had worse. And I've had a lot better. If you want some lessons, there's a bondage club in Old Town where you'd fit right in."

That earned him another kick. And suddenly, Zoom was outside his cell and phasing into the one with the masked man. Harry watched in horror as Zoom grabbed him by the throat, blue lightning coursing over his body, the masked man thrashing helplessly.

Zoom dropped him and was now between both cells. He stared at Harry and said, _"You have two days, Wells. Two days."_

Two days, two years. Time didn't matter so long as Jesse was safe. 

So long as his boys were safe.


	2. Chapter 2

**Three Months Ago**

He'd been here for a month and still found this S.T.A.R. Labs a difficult place to navigate. So much of it was the same as the one on his own Earth, but it was different in too many ways. Maybe because his facility had a decade-long head start, but there was a rawness here, a sense of things left unfinished, unpolished, undone. His particle accelerator had not been the impetus for his own enterprise, but part of a decade-long development process. If the children he'd encountered were to be believed, this whole enterprise – every lab, every cable, every room, existed for the sole purpose of creating the Flash. And then destroying him.

This S.T.A.R. Labs had too much concrete and dramatic lighting. Too many small, empty rooms with no apparent purpose. 

But it did have some of the same amenities as the one he'd left behind – a well-equipped gym, a decent kitchen, laundry facilities, and a seemingly endless supply of S.T.A.R. Labs branded clothing. Convenient, given the last thing he wanted to do was waste hours in some seedy laundromat – which he didn't even have money for. Nor could he exactly show his face in public.

He'd eaten, he'd worked out, his clothes were clean, but he couldn't sleep. He was too haunted by his latest failure, by the memory of Barry's broken body, and Zoom's horrific appearance here on this vulnerable world, to rest for more than a few hours at a time.

He wished that all he could think about was his daughter and how to rescue her, but he was getting too distracted by this world. He found himself heading to the med bay, where Barry was sleeping. Although the boy was still weak, he'd recovered from most of the serious physical trauma that Zoom had inflicted, and on Snow's advice, was staying here for the next few nights, hooked up to monitors.

Maybe Barry was awake. There were worse people who he could find company with. 

Youth and his distressing habit of getting romantically distracted at all the wrong moments aside, the Flash on this Earth was a cut above that speed fiend, Garrick. There was a heroic quality to the boy that reminded Harrison of the stories he'd devoured in his youth, stories about men and women of selfless courage, unafraid to make the ultimate sacrifice to save the innocent.

As he'd grown older, more jaded, he'd become disgusted by those tales and the lies they'd perpetuated. There was no such thing as a selfless hero – everyone was out for something. Even Garrick, before Zoom stole his speed, had been a glory hound who'd lusted after the adulation of the masses, while hiding his own less-than-savory nature.

Barry Allen, though, didn't seem particularly interested in glory. Or fame. He got nothing out of being this world's Flash, except broken bones and a broken heart. Which made Barry dangerous to him. It made him remember those stories, remember the thrill in believing that there was someone who cared because it was the right thing to do.

Harrison laughed at this foolishness. Maybe Garrick had started out like this, maybe all the fallen heroes did. Maybe, in a couple of years, Barry Allen would be exactly the same. Venal and grasping, desperately seeking the hero's crown.

Or maybe not. What type of man welcomed a stranger and offered him help, when that stranger looked and sounded just like the man who'd betrayed him?

A fool? An idiot? Or just a young man with a great and unstained soul?

To his surprise, the medical bay was empty – but not deserted. The lights were still on, the bed unmade, but the wheelchair – the one his evil doppelganger had used – was not in evidence. Barry had regained nearly of his motor functions, but tired easily at the end of the day. Harrison figured that the boy had gone to the bathroom and waited for him to return.

The minutes passed, but there was no sign of Barry. Unwillingly worried, Harrison went to check the nearest men's room, but it was dark. Maybe Barry was roaming the halls, equally sleepless. He flipped open his watch and fiddled with the meta-human app detector. His model was tricked out with all sorts of functions not available on the consumer model, including a meta-human locator. Once the app had tracked a particular meta, it could locate it within a certain range. It was useless with Zoom, who moved too fast. But Barry – the Flash – wasn't moving all that fast these days.

Harry tracked to boy down without difficulty; he was in a small storeroom off the Pipeline. He wondered what the hell brought him to this isolated space, then he grinned. Barry wasn't alone. Ramon was with him. Despite the budding romance with Joe West's pretty blonde partner, Harrison had wondered about those two.

Without an ounce of shame, he settled in to listen.

_"Barry, please, please."_

_"Cisco – why?"_

_"You know why. I – I made a mistake – a lot of mistakes. I need to be punished."_

_"What the hell are you talking about? You do not need to be punished. How could you even think that?"_

_"I fucked up. I always fuck up. I made the cold gun and look at what happened. I screwed up with trying to expose the Reverse-Flash and now I've got fucking meta powers that are mostly useless. I couldn't even hit Zoom with the dart properly. I'm a screw-up."_

Ramon was actually crying and something twisted in Harrison's belly.

_"No, you're not. You're perfect – there's nothing you can say or do that will make me think otherwise."_

_"I need to be better."_

_"We all do."_

_"You can help me."_

_"Cisco – "_ Now Barry's tone was heartfelt, almost heartbreaking. _"You don't need me to do that. How could you want that?"_

_"Please, please."_

_"You can't want me to hurt you. I love you."_

Cisco sniffled. _"But I need this."_

_"Did … did he make you think that? That you needed to be hurt to be worthy?"_

_"It's not like that."_ More tears, more sniffles. _"Please, Barry."_

Harrison knew all too well what Cisco needed and why. He'd once been in this exact same place and he hadn't gotten what he needed. It almost ruined him.

_"What about if you sit very still, without moving, hands on your head? For fifteen minutes? How is that for a punishment?"_

Harrison wondered if the imposter played _that_ game with Barry.

_"And if I mess up?"_

_"We'll think of something. But you won't mess up."_

_"I will, I will. I always mess up."_

Harrison took off his glasses and wiped his eyes. If this conversation wasn't so heartbreaking, it would be ridiculous. 

_"Barry? Do you think he'd …"_

The pause was nerve-wracking.

_"No, Cisco. I don't think he would. He wouldn't understand."_

Harrison couldn't help but wonder who the "he" was – maybe Garrick? The very thought made his flesh crawl. Garrick would destroy these boys. 

And then he realized they were talking about him.

_"No, you're right. He hates us – he hates me – anyway. I screw everything up."_

_"Cisco, please stop saying that. You don't._

Harrison had three choices, he could sit and listen and let his already fractured heart break even further, he could walk away and tell himself that whatever happened to these children was not his problem or responsibility, or he could do something to make it better.

Harrison never thought of himself as a coward, nor did he take particular enjoyment in other people's misery. And as for his record in avoiding responsibility, well, that disaster resulted in the nightmare he was living in now. 

Harrison told himself that it would mean nothing to him to give Cisco what he needed, and in the long run it would help. The boy was brilliant, as much a genius as anyone he'd ever met, but he needed a firm hand. He needed what Barry couldn't give him. 

Without giving himself any time to reconsider, Harrison went into the room – a small storage area empty of everything but a cot and desk and chair.

The two boys – and despite the fact that both were over twenty-five, Harrison couldn't help but think of them as boys – were _mostly_ clothed. Cisco was bare-chested and Barry had stripped to his undershirt, and the only thing compromising about their situation was that Cisco was on his knees, quietly sobbing into Barry's lap, and Barry was stroking Cisco's hair, his own tears warring with frustration and a healthy dose of self-loathing.

They didn't hear him enter, because Cisco kept pleading and Barry kept trying to convince him that he didn't need what he was asking for.

"Please, Barry. I need you to punish me."

"No, no. You are wonderful, Cisco. You're smart and beautiful and perfect and I love you. I couldn't do any of this without you. I'd be dead without you. You don't need to be hurt to believe that. "

Harry spoke, keeping his tone measured, cool, almost polite. "But he does, Mr. Allen. And I'm willing to do it."

The boys looked up at him, fear and shame on both their faces as the separated. Cisco scrambled for his shirt, holding it up like a shield. Barry just raised his chin and stared at him, defiance replacing the darker emotions. "You're already enough of a bastard to Cisco. You're the last person who should be laying a hand on him."

Harrison laughed and the sound – even to his ears – was nasty as the earlier veneer of politeness disintegrated. "I admire your protectiveness. It goes quite well with the other heroic aspects of your nature. But you don't understand what your friend needs."

"His friend doesn't need _you_." Cisco spoke up finally, and he reminded Harrison of an angry kitten, glaring eyes and needle-sharp teeth, but too afraid to use them.

"That's not what I heard, Ramon. And for the record, I don't hate you. I just don't think much of you at all." Now, that was a lie.

That rocked the boy back on his heels and he dropped the shirt. "Then why would you even want to do this?"

Barry added combatively, "What are you getting out of this? Other than getting your rocks off."

"Getting my rocks off is not a foregone conclusion, Allen. That will very much depend upon your friend. Nothing happens without his consent." Harrison didn't take his eyes off Cisco.

Barry was nothing if not persistent. "You haven't answered me. Why would you do this?"

Harrison sighed and decided to tell them the truth – at least part of it. "I need you – both of you – to help defeat Zoom. I can't afford to have either of you breaking down because you needed something I could provide and failed to do."

Barry asked, still combative, "And what is that?"

"Discipline, Allen. Lessons in self-control."

Barry shook his head. "It's more than that. There's something else you want, some other reason."

Harrison shrugged and did his best to deflect. "It's funny, but you have every reason to despise me and yet without question, you've brought me here and invited me into your charmed circle despite my unfortunate resemblance to a psychopathic killer. You've pledged your powers, you've risked your life, to help me, no questions asked. But now, when it's not your ass on the line, you're fighting me tooth and nail. Why?"

"Because you want to hurt my best friend!" Barry launched himself out of that damned chair, an effective move, except his right leg crumpled. Harrison caught him before he fell and when Barry looked at him – anger and hope and so much damn pain shining out of his eyes, it was all he could do not to hold him close and give him comfort. That was not his role and he couldn't afford the distraction.

Instead, he coolly put the boy into the wheelchair and turned back to Cisco. "I need you strong, Mr. Ramon, and you're not strong. Right now, you are close to breaking."

Cisco glared at him. "And you really couldn't give two fucks about that." The boy flushed, realizing what he'd just said.

Harrison ignored the invective. He needed a way into the boy's head and sniping at him wasn't going to do it. "You're a good Catholic?"

"No, fuck that god shit. Haven't been to church since my confirmation. Wouldn't have even gone to that but I couldn't stand my mother's nagging."

"But you were raised in the Church. You've absorbed the lessons of sin and penitence and forgiveness."

Cisco nodded slowly and Harrison could see the dawning realization in the boy's dark, beautiful eyes.

"You understand the need for punishment. You know you need that before you can receive absolution for your sins."

"Yes." Cisco flicked a glance over at Barry. Harrison couldn't quite interpret it, but thankfully, Barry didn't interfere or express any disdain. What a fucking perfect hero, even to his friends.

Harrison returned his focus to Cisco. "Then this is how it will work. You will tell me what you've done and I will give you what you need. At any point when you want me to stop, you will give me your safe word." 

Cisco looked confused. 

"Do you know what that is? The other one didn't ask you for one, before he disciplined you?"

Cisco's flushed bright red; his cheeks, his neck, his chest and belly. "I know what it is, but we didn't use one. He'd make me give him a number – the value of my sins – and that's how many times he'd …" The boy bit his lip, too embarrassed to continue. "It was fine, he never hurt me. It was never more than I could take."

"You had quite an extraordinary relationship of trust with the man."

"Yeah, until the bastard murdered me."

"True. But I'm not him. I want your safe word."

Cisco took a moment to think, before saying, "Einstein."

Harrison nodded in approval. "And don't ever be afraid to use it. This is not a competition for endurance and I won't shame you if you can't continue. The last thing I want to do is break you."

"Okay, okay." Cisco looked at Barry again, who, except for the high flags of scarlet on his cheeks, seemed almost too grave and composed.

"Mr. Allen? Anything to add."

"Unless Cisco wants me to leave, I'm staying." Oh, the subtext of that statement was like a billboard – for this, Barry didn't trust him.

The protectiveness Barry exhibited for Cisco was heady, arousing. It was something he wished he'd had for himself, before life turned him so hard. Instead, he looked to Cisco and asked, "You okay with that?"

Cisco took a deep breath. "Barry can stay. I want him to see."

"Very good. Then let us begin." He gave the first command. "Strip. Everything."

Cisco looked again to Barry, but this time, Harrison intervened. "You want this from me, you listen to me. You can't do what I ask, you tell me."

To his surprise, Barry said nothing and got up. To his greater surprise, he gave _him_ an instruction. "Take the chair."

 _Ah._ He switched places with Barry, who was now leaning against the desk. Cisco's eyes were now glued to him. Harrison wondered if this had become something of a fetish object for these boys, something that the imposter had wrongfully earned. He sat down and relaxed. It felt odd, as if he were sitting on a throne. But also natural. 

"Ramon, I gave an order. I expect you to follow through."

This time, there were no glances, no delays. The boy striped to the skin and stood there, waiting for the next command.

Harrison took a moment to enjoy the sight before him; all that smooth skin on his hairless chest, the bit of fullness of his belly, the slightly tumescent and very pretty uncut cock, his strong thighs and calves. He didn't want to be aroused – this was not supposed to be about him – but his palms were sweating and heat was blooming in his belly. "Take your socks off, Ramon. There's nothing more ridiculous that a naked man in gym socks."

"But the floor is cold."

"You won't be standing. Take the socks off."

Cisco complied and Harrison used the few seconds to wipe his palms on his pants and gather up the threads of his control into a tight knot. 

"Now, Mr. Ramon, tell me why you need to be punished."

Cisco dropped his head and mumbled something.

"Look at me, do not break eye contact. And speak clearly." He could have added an instruction about pretending to be in the confessional, but that was a kink he never wanted to explore.

Cisco obeyed and met his gaze. He licked his lips and began the litany of his self-assigned sins.

"I screwed up. I let Doctor Light escape, I believed her when she said she wanted to cooperate and then when I saw the pile of clothes she'd left in her cell, I didn't even think about how she could turn invisible. So I opened the cell and she ran right past me."

It was easy, almost too easy to fall back into this role. "And to you consider that a serious mistake?"

Cisco nodded.

"Speak, I need your words."

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Because …" Cisco paused and Harrison was pleased. The boy was thinking and not treating this as some rote exercise. "Because of that mistake, we had to ask a civilian for help. Because of me, Barry had to tell Linda Park he was the Flash. Because of my error, we put Linda in danger. Because when Barry went to rescue Linda, he engaged with Zoom before we were ready. We weren't in control of the situation and that … that – "

Suddenly, Cisco was hyperventilating, blinking rapidly. 

"Calm down. Look at me." When Cisco didn't comply, he issued the order again, in a sharper, deeper tone. "Look at me, Mr. Ramon."

That seemed to bring the boy back from the edge. 

"Can you finish?"

Cisco swallowed. "Yes."

"Then, go on."

"Barry fought Zoom, but he wasn't prepared. He was outmatched, worse than the first time he fought the Reverse-Flash, and when Zoom appeared at S.T.A.R. Labs, I couldn't even shoot him with the speed dampener properly. He brushed it off like it was nothing. He broke Barry's back; he dragged him through Central City like he was a trophy. And that's all my fault."

Harrison took off his glasses and then his watch and held them out for Barry to take, still never breaking eye-contact with Cisco.

"It's not for me to judge how grievous these errors are, Mr. Ramon. That's your responsibility. It's my task to administer the punishment you need. Tell me, how severely should you be disciplined?"

As Cisco contemplated that question, Harrison carefully rolled up his sleeves. This was all theater, but necessary. "I'm still waiting for your answer."

"One hundred … strokes."

And that took him by surprise. From some point close behind him, he heard Barry's gasp. "I understand your need for expiation and that you believe your sins are of such a great magnitude to warrant that, but one hundred is not a feasible number. I have no wish to damage you. Nor do I think you are a masochist who enjoys pain for the sake of pain. Now, rethink your punishment."

The boy had flushed a dark and unbecoming shade of red at his words. "Fifty?"

"Let's go with thirty." 

"Forty."

Harrison stifled a smile. The boy was actually negotiating with him. Good. He nodded his head. "Then forty it is." 

He was about to order Cisco across his lap, then he realized that while the chair had earned him the cooperation he needed, it presented a logistical challenge. Barry, unsurprisingly, came to his rescue and released the mechanism that dropped the chair's arms. Cisco draped himself over Harrison's lap.

Harrison took a moment to again appreciate the boy's beauty and resisted the urge to caress all that firm, smooth skin. That reward might come later. He rested his hand on one buttock, noting how the muscles had tensed up. Telling Cisco to relax would be like trying to stop the tide with a tissue.

"Are you ready?"

"Yes."

"You will count. You will not stop counting but if you do, you will not earn more punishment for that. I will simply cease. Understand?"

Cisco didn't answer. Clearly, he'd been planning on getting more than he'd negotiated for.

"Understand?"

"Yes."

"Then let us begin."

Harrison didn't start out at full strength, that would be too cruel and this wasn't an exercise in cruelty. He was not a sadist. But the first hit wasn't a love tap, either. The sound of flesh against flesh was sharp, like a gunshot.

Cisco yelped out, "One."

The first ten were of similar strength and he carefully alternated between the boy's right and left buttock, never hitting the same point twice in succession.

His arm and his hand actually ached, and Harrison realized just how out of practice he was at this. He paused and asked, "How are you doing?"

Cisco panted and squirmed just a bit, "Good. Hurts but it's good."

The sound of a quick breath reminded Harrison of what he'd momentarily forgotten that they weren't alone. "You see, Mr. Allen – I'm giving Cisco what he needs."

To his surprise, Cisco made a request. "Barry, come closer. Watch."

In a different scenario, that might have earned the boy some additional punishment. He should have asked permission first. But Cisco wasn't his sub, he wasn't Cisco's Dom. That wasn't their dynamic. Not yet, maybe not ever – he didn't need the distraction.

Harrison could feel Barry approach, his body heat as he hovered at his shoulder. Another distraction, one he put aside when he asked, "Mr. Ramon, are you ready to continue?"

"Yes, please."

The next ten were harder – for both him and the boy on his lap. His hand stung and his arm and shoulder ached. Cisco, however, didn't miss a count; for all that he'd upped the force of impact. By the twentieth stroke, the aspect of this exercise went through an inevitable change. Cisco was rocking against his lap, not quite rutting, but close.

Harrison took another pause and finger-combed the boy's hair off of his face. Cisco was flushed, his eyelids fluttering, and was altogether too exquisite for his peace of mind. "Mr. Ramon?"

Cisco sighed, "Yes?"

"I would like to ask something of you."

"Anything, just don't stop."

Harrison wanted to admonish the boy about making such blanket promises. "If Barry wants, I'd like him to hold you."

"Hold me?"

Harrison reached around, letting his fingertips skirt along the hot skin on his hip. "Hold your cock. Will that be acceptable?"

"Yes, oh, please, yes."

Harrison looked over his shoulder. "Mr. Allen, would you join us?"

Barry's eyes were huge, great glowing green orbs set against the ruby flush of his cheeks. Harrison flicked his gaze down, pleased at the evidence of the boy's arousal – his sweatpants were massively distended and there was a growing wet patch. The damage to his body was healed, now it was a matter of getting his mind back into the game. He nodded.

"Kneel in front of me."

Barry complied, moving a lot faster than he had since Zoom. "What should I do?"

Harrison could feel the need to command in his bones. "Reach between my legs and hold his cock. Don't stroke – don't tease. Just grip." 

Barry did as ordered, and Harrison realized he just might have made a mistake. The boy's fist was a few inches from his own aroused cock. Contact would be inevitable. But he wasn't turning back.

"Mr. Ramon, are you ready to continue?"

"Please, yes."

"Very well. Unless you use your safe word, we will not stop until we reach forty, understand?"

"Yes … sir."

Harrison closed his eyes and fought for control. That last whispered syllable nearly destroyed it.

By the time he'd administered the next ten strokes, Cisco was bucking hard against him, whining with pleasure and Barry's hand kept knocking against his own cock. He ordered, his voice, harsher than normal, "Hold him, Mr. Allen. Don't let him come."

Harrison placed five more strokes, hard and punitive, against Cisco's ass, took a deep breath and finished the last five. He couldn't tell if Cisco had counted, his own heartbeat were too loud.

What he could tell was that Cisco hadn't come and Barry was still holding on to his friend's cock. Harrison licked his lips, but his mouth was too dry.

"Should I let go?"

He nodded and suffered a very special torment when Barry's fingers – whether deliberately or accidentally – bumped against his groin.

Cisco whined and rutted against him and Harrison threw the rest of his self-control out the proverbial window. He glided his fingers along the hot curves of the boy's ass, not pushing at the bruising, but letting the skin react to the gentler sensation. Blissed out from the punishment, Cisco parted his thighs and rocked into him.

Harrison found his voice. "Mr. Ramon – " That formality, that attempt to put some distance between them, was ridiculous. He shook his head and started over, "Cisco, what do you want?"

"Fffuck me. Please, sir, please Dr. Wells, fuck me."

Harrison wondered if the boy knew who he was talking to, if he was longing for the imposter, for the man who'd once murdered him. Cisco kept rocking against him and Harrison decided he didn't care.

It took a little doing, but he managed to get Cisco on the cot, on his hands and knees. His own hands were shaking and he clenched them. 

"Dr. Wells?"

Barry's voice was small, not quite afraid, but not as sure has he'd been before.

"What?"

"Do you want me to go?"

"If you want, but … I'd prefer if you stayed."

Barry smiled and it was like the room was filled with a ball of bright, golden sunlight. He put something on the bed next to Cisco. "You'll need these."

Lube and a condom. "You can't stop being the hero, can you, Mr. Allen?"

The boy kept smiling. "Nope."

Cisco whined again, drawing Harrison's attention. He leaned over him, lifting his hair away and whispered, "Are you sure?"

"Please, oh, please. Always wanted you; didn't think you'd want me." Cisco bucked up against him, "But you do."

Harrison still wasn't sure if Cisco knew he wasn't the false Wells, but he was beyond caring. He rocked his hips into the boy's well-pinked ass and got a delighted groan as a reward.

He hadn't realized that Barry was behind him until he felt a pair of warm hands pulling his sweater off, then unbuckling his belt, unzipping his fly, mouthing a hot kiss against his shoulder, his neck, whispering in his ear, "Take care of Cisco, let me take care of you."

Prepping Cisco was easy. While basic male anatomy still required him to take his time with the boy, Cisco was relaxed from the spanking and eager, fucking himself onto Harrison's fingers with gratifying impatience.

Barry panted in his ear, "Give me the condom."

Oh, holy fuck – he had not started out with this in mind but there was no way he could stop. He reached out for the condom on the bed and managed to get it into Barry's hands. Those cool hands with long fingers, rolling the condom on to his cock. 

"Now, the lube."

This was madness – pure and perfect – as Barry slicked him up like he'd done this a hundred times before

Maybe he had, but Harrison couldn't find any reason to care.

He jerked Cisco close, enjoying the boy's hiss of pleasured pain as his open fly pressed against sore skin. Harrison waited, wondering if Barry was actually going to take control of _him_ and guide the penetration, but he didn't. Barry's hands were everywhere but his cock, teasing his navel, his nipples, the old battle scars from a war fought on a different Earth.

Taking his time, Harrison sank balls deep into Cisco and it felt too good, too perfect. It had been years since he'd let himself go like this and the logical, rational part of his brain – the one above his waistline – told him that this was going to be a terrible mistake.

He didn't care and leaned over Cisco, covering him, pressing hot, open-mouth kisses against his shoulders, his back, the nape of his neck beneath the curtain of hair, all the while rocking into him slowly, fucking like the tide. When he wasn't kissing him, he was whispering words of praise, letting him know what a good and strong boy he was.

At some point, Barry left him. The air was cool against his naked back, like another hand. He raised himself up and looked for him, but he didn't need to search. Barry was kneeling on the bed next to Cisco, stroking his friend's face, kissing him wetly, wiping away the tears.

Their eyes met and Harrison wondered how he'd gotten to this moment. He didn't deserve any of this. He would – in a heartbeat – betray these two if it meant saving his daughter's life. Yet here he was, caught up in a scene that he'd started out of pity and self-interest and unwilling compassion. 

Barry broke their gaze and started mouthing and caressing Cisco in the same places that his own lips had just claimed. It was beautiful to watch and he almost wished he could take the role of an observer, seeing these to make love to each other. That had never been a particular interest of his; he was not one who preferred the role of a passive watcher. But he did appreciate beauty, and Barry and Cisco were beautiful together.

Cisco turned his face from Barry, he turned to look at him, and although his eyes were dark, Harrison could tell that the boy's pupils were blown. He was high on endorphins, desire, and probably a little out of his mind.

Or not.

"Harry."

Those two syllables, mostly breathed – barely spoken – were enough to send him into overdrive. He didn't care that he was pounding into sore, spanked flesh, he didn't care that the boy beneath him was just as aroused; all he could feel was his own desire, his own need. The gratification that Cisco knew it was _him_ was like a lightning bolt to his libido and he came with a shout. Beneath him, Cisco's body clenched, milking him as he reached his own orgasm.

Hands, blessedly cool hands against his hot, too-tight skin, eased him away from Cisco, and helped him sit down. He was absently aware of someone – Barry – caring for him, removing the condom, cleaning him up. 

He could feel the drop coming. He stood, pulling up his pants, not bothering to locate his shirt. That was unimportant. It had been years, decades maybe, since he'd experienced the crash after a scene and he hoped to escape before it hit him hard.

"Where are you going?" Barry stopped him.

Harrison took a deep breath and tried to find the words. It was almost impossible. "I need to go."

"You're not all right." Barry was standing in front of him, but Harrison wasn't sure that he'd used his speed or that he was too out of it to realize the boy had moved.

"I'll … be okay."

Barry glanced over to Cisco, who was curled up on the cot, a peaceful – almost serene – expression on his face. The boy wasn't sleeping; he was looking at him, his eyes darker than a moonless sky. "Stay with us, Harry." His voice was slurred.

He had always hated that diminutive, a relic from an unhappy childhood. Not even his wife had called him that. But for some reason, he liked the sound of it from Cisco's lips. The boy was a scrapper and he fought back with all the weapons he had. And names were important to Cisco. "Harry" might have started out as an attempt to diminish him, but it wasn't any more. It was the golden admission ticket to this very special club. His very own secret identity.

Harrison shook his head at this silliness. The drop was making him foolish.

"What do you need from us?" Barry asked quietly. "What can we give you?"

He looked at the bed with a pang of longing. 

Barry noticed the direction of his gaze and took his hands, bringing him back into the room. He was stripped and tucked under the covers with as much care as if he'd been the sub in this scene.

Harrison curled around Cisco's body and draped an arm over his waist, matching the boy's deep, steady breathing.

Barry kissed his forehead and commanded, "Sleep."

He did.


	3. Chapter 3

**Now, An Hour After the Last Breach Was Closed**

Jesse looked around and tried like hell not to burst into hysterical tears. She was surrounded by strangers, in a universe she shouldn't be in. 

A woman with vaguely familiar features, the one who'd gone to Jay Garrick after he'd been punched, approached. She gave her a sad smile and offered her a welcoming hand and a name. "I'm Dr. Caitlin Snow. Welcome to Earth-1."

_Caitlin_. That's the name that the Flash's friend called Killer Frost. This must be her doppelganger.

"I'm so sorry for everything you've gone through. What can we get you?"

"A bath, some clean clothes and my father back. Not necessarily in that order."

The woman seemed taken aback by her words, or maybe her tone.

Barry – the Flash – was arguing quietly with an older man. He, too, seemed familiar. Another woman had joined the argument. She looked a just like the cop who was married to Barry's doppelganger, and she seemed to know Barry and the man. Jesse watched them – there was a family dynamic there, but she couldn't bring herself to be interested, at least until the other woman approached. 

"Jesse, I'm Iris. Barry's foster-sister. We're so sorry about your father."

"He's not dead."

Iris didn't argue with her. "You'll need a place to stay – do you want to come with us?" She tilted her head towards the older man. "That's my father, he's a detective with the Central City police. He's been working with Harry to help bring you home."

"Harry?"

"Yeah, that's what we call your dad."

"He hates when people call him Harry."

Iris shrugged. "Well, we kind of had to."

"Why?"

"It's complicated and I don't think you're up for that story now." She made to take her arm, but Jesse flinched back. "You can stay with us – there's a spare bedroom."

"Where was my dad staying?"

Barry answered. "He was living here."

"Then I want to stay here – where my dad was."

Iris looked like she wanted to argue but Barry just nodded. "Okay. Come with me. I'll get you something to wear and something to eat."

Jesse followed and suddenly realized that she was in this Earth's equivalent of S.T.A.R. Labs. It was … awful. "What happened here? Where is everyone?"

"Like Iris said, it's complicated. We'll tell you everything – but just not now."

They walked through empty corridors until Barry stopped at door and opened it. "Here's where your dad's been living for the last four months. It's not much. The spare bedroom at Joe and Iris' is much nicer."

Jesse was sure it was. This room was spartan, just two cots, a desk, a chair and a bedside table – but this was where she needed to be. There wasn't much to show that her dad had been here, except for a black sweater draped across the back of a desk chair. She went to it and picked it up. "I gave this to him. Every Christmas, every birthday, I would give him the same black sweater. It was a joke between us. But he loved – loves this sweater and wears it until it falls apart." She held it up to her face. It smelled like her father and it was all she could do not to burst into tears. She put it back on the chair, careful to place it just as she'd found it. 

"Can I have a few minutes?" 

Barry nodded, "Of course. Let me get you something to wear."

Jesse looked down at her wrist. In the few minutes they'd had in her dad's office, before going down to the portal, he'd taken off Zoom's shackle and replaced it with his meta-human sensing watch. She didn't know why he did that, and she was torn. She was happy to have something of his, but it also meant that her dad didn't have it and he might need it.

She opened the watch, hoping there was a message there, but all she got was a low-battery signal. Maybe there was a charger here, but if there was, she was too tired to look for it. She took the watch off and put it on the desk.

Barry tapped on the doorframe. "Hope you don't mind some S.T.A.R. Labs stuff. I can ask Iris if she can bring you something else to wear tomorrow."

She smiled sadly, the familiarity of the logo was comforting. "It's okay. But I'd really like that shower, please?" 

"Sure, it's not far."

She wailed out her loss and grief in the privacy of hot water and emerged feeling better, if just for the simple fact that she was clean for the first time in months. The S.T.A.R. Labs sweatshirt and pants were a little big, but they were warm and soft and comforting in their familiarity. Barry, who'd changed out of the red suit into ordinary street clothes, was sitting on the floor next to the door.

"Figured you'd get lost. Joe and Iris fetched some food and everyone's waiting in the Cortex."

"The Cortex?"

"Yeah – Cisco named it, because that's where everything important happens."

"Ah – like the brain."

Barry ducked his head and smiled. "You're going to fit in here perfectly if you get Cisco's jokes."

"Cisco, he's the guy who talked Killer Frost into breaking my chains, right?"

"Yeah."

"And Killer Frost, she's Dr. Snow's doppelganger, right?"

Barry nodded. "Probably best not to spill that so soon." He gave her a considering look. "You seem awfully cool with the idea of doppelgangers and the whole multiverse."

She shrugged. "Dad was a student of Martin Stein and was really keen on the idea. I kind of grew up with bedtime stories about parallel universes."

"You know Dr. Stein?"

"Not that I remember. He died when I was a little girl. Cancer."

"Ah."

"He's alive here?"

"Yeah, he was the one who told me about the multiverse. He's a bit of a superhero. Okay – a lot of a superhero."

"Really?"

"Yup. It's all part of the complicated story we need to tell you."

Jesse figured that. "So, is Doctor Snow Jay Garrick's girlfriend?"

Barry shrugged. "They are friends."

"She seemed pretty quick to go to his side when you punched him."

Barry didn't say anything.

"You know, it was really weird with that guy in the mask. How he reacted when you said that Jay Garrick was here, on your Earth."

"I was thinking about that."

"My dad really can't stand Jay Garrick. He thinks he's a self-righteous prat with an overblown hero complex."

Barry nodded at that. "Yeah – Harry and Jay don't really get along. There seems to be some bad history between them."

Jesse was glad to be able to provide some useful information. "Jay Garrick crashed his last press conference, before Zoom kidnapped me. He was the one who told everyone that the particle accelerator accident created all the meta-humans."

Barry's reply shocked her, "It did."

"How can you know that?"

Barry gestured to the barren cement walls. "There was a very similar accident here. It was … deliberate. It created all of the meta-humans on this Earth. It created me."

"You don't sound too happy about that. You don't like being the Flash?"

"I do, but the reasons behind me getting my powers are pretty ugly."

"That whole complicated backstory?"

"Yeah." He gestured for her to precede him into a large central room – the so-called "Cortex". Cisco and Jay and Dr. Snow were there. So were Iris and her father. There were also bags from Big Belly Burger spread out on every console. 

"You have Big Belly Burger here, too?"

Cisco and Barry laughed. "That was one of the first things your dad asked when he got here."

Jesse didn't think she'd have much of an appetite, but the smell of grilled meat and fries made her mouth water. Cisco offered her a seat and a bag and she attacked it with surprising gusto.

She finished and looked up to find everyone staring at her, with varying degrees of fondness and curiosity. "What?"

Cisco said a little sadly, "You're just like Harry. He really loved – loves – Big Belly Burgers."

"Other than breakfast, Dad isn't much of a cook. It's a good thing we both like to run. Before … before everything, we'd go out almost every morning, rain or shine." Jesse wiped her mouth, finished her soda, and asked, "How are we going to rescue my father? Was that really the only portal to my Earth?"

Cisco nodded. "There were originally fifty-two breaches; we closed all of them but the one here before we went to get you. We'd left instructions that that one was to be closed, too, after forty-eight hours." He gave Jay Garrick an ugly look. "I wouldn't have thought that the Crimson Comet here would have tossed the bomb before we all came back, though."

"Hey, that's not fair. You and Barry and Jesse were through, I thought – "

Barry cut him off. "You thought wrong. And now we have no way of getting back there to rescue Jesse's father."

"And Zoom has no way of getting here, remember." Jay sniped back.

"The plan was that _everyone_ was supposed to come home."

"Barry, please." Doctor Snow stepped between the two speedsters. "Jay did what he thought was best."

"And he stranded one of us! Left Harry in the hands of that monster." Cisco added, bitterly. 

Jesse liked how these people, with the possible exception of Jay Garrick, considered her prickly, so-not-a-people-person father, as one of them. "This bickering isn't helping. Are you sure that there are no other breaches we could use?"

"We've been tracking them since the Singularity. Barry closed all but the last one before we went to rescue you. There are no more."

"And I'm guessing that this Singularity is all part of the extremely complex story I still know nothing about."

The team looked at each other, probably debating who should tell the tale and what to tell her.

"Don't you have the K.I.S.S. principle here? You know, "Keep It Simple, Stupid."

Joe West laughed. "She's definitely Harry's daughter."

Jesse wasn't sure that was a compliment, but she decided to take it as such. "So, who's going to tell me?"

Everyone turned to Barry, who scrubbed at his face. "It's not an easy story to tell, and it's not going to be simple, either."

By the time Barry had finished – with contributions from almost everyone – Jesse felt like she wanted to throw up. "What did my dad step into?"

"A steaming pile of shit." That came from Barry's foster father. "He thought it was the only way to rescue you."

She covered her face and tried to hold it together, but she couldn't. It was just too much. Someone, from the scent of perfume, either Dr. Snow or Iris West, steered her back towards the room where her father had stayed, where he'd exiled himself.

The cot was a lot softer than the floor she'd been using as a bed for the last four months and Jesse felt like she could sleep for a year. Maybe when she woke up, she'd have her father back.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Caitlin wondered what had happened on Earth-Two. Cisco could barely look at her, even Barry seemed to be holding back. It had to be more than just the debacle with Jay.

And thinking about Jay made her … unhappy. The last forty-eight hours had been a combination of joy and triumph and confusion. It seemed like the new Velocity formulation was going to save his life. It might not restore his speed permanently, but he wasn't going to die from cellular collapse.

But she couldn't help but wonder where the hell he'd been when Geomancer invaded the lab. The meta-human had practically torn the building apart and Jay was _napping_? She found it bizarre that he simply slept through the sound of walls shattering, stone breaking, the whole building shaking. It didn't make sense.

And then there was his expression as he tossed the bomb and the last breach closed. She could see cold triumph and smugness, like he'd just won a game that no one else realized was being played. It reminded her too much of the Reverse-Flash, when he revealed himself to everyone. It lasted just a second – almost too brief for her to believe what she'd seen.

Even though she supported him against Barry and Cisco's anger, it bothered her, like a splinter under the skin. She wanted to dig it out and examine it. 

"Caitlin?" Jay put a gentle hand on her arm. "Are you all right?"

She smiled. "Just worried about Jesse, about Harry." That was the truth, just not the whole truth.

"Jesse will be fine. She seems smart and strong."

"But what about Harry?"

Jay shrugged. "He's gone, Cait. We can't do anything about that."

She bit her lip. This felt so wrong. "Maybe there's something that can be done. And you know Barry, you tell him it's impossible, he'll find a way to prove you wrong."

Jay shook his head. "Then he'll be going to Earth-Two to retrieve a corpse. You can't think that Zoom hasn't already killed Wells."

"Maybe he has, maybe he hasn't, but Barry's not going to give up."

"And what about you?" Jay touched her cheek. "I hate to see you burning yourself out for such a hopeless – and potentially deadly – cause." 

She smiled, despite her growing unease, and did her best not to pull away. 

"You look tired, perhaps you should go home. Get a good night's sleep."

Caitlin was exhausted and the idea of bed was too enticing. But she didn't like the idea of leaving Jesse here, alone. It seemed wrong and maybe a bit dangerous, especially since Jay was bunking here, too. That thought frightened her, that Jay, who she'd all but fallen in love with, would somehow harm Jesse.

"I need to check with Barry and Cisco about something. Then maybe … " She fluttered her lashes at him. "Maybe you want to come back with me?"

Jay seemed taken aback by her offer. "Are you sure?" He skimmed his hand down her arm, capturing her fingers. "I wouldn't want to presume."

Caitlin smiled. "My couch is comfortable. Just give me a few minutes and we'll go." She squeezed his hand, thankful that her palms weren't sweaty, and walked backwards towards the Cortex, where she'd last seen Cisco and Barry. Once Jay was out of sight, she ran.

Barry wasn't in the room, but Cisco was. He looked terrible, but she didn't have time to deal with his issues right now. "Where's Barry?"

"He walked out with Joe and Iris, but he'll be back in a sec." Cisco turned around at the sound of footsteps. "And there he is."

"Good." She grabbed Cisco and then Barry and pulled them into the medical bay. 

"Cait?"

Without any preamble, she gave voice to her suspicions. "I don't trust Jay."

Barry didn't seem surprised when he asked, "Why not?"

"Lots of little things. He's been disappearing at really strange times. And when he closed the breach, he looked smug, happy." It hurt to say it, but she couldn't keep this in anymore. "He lied about Zoom stealing his speed."

Barry lips tightened. "I was wondering about that. When we were on Earth-Two, Zoom made it clear he needed Wells to take my speed, I couldn't figure out why, if he was able to take Garrick's. Do you know how he lost it?"

Caitlin nodded. "When you were with the Arrow trying to help Kendra, Doctor Wells and I started working on a speed drug – we called it Velocity, but we couldn't get the formulation right. When Jay saw what we were doing, he went ballistic, calling in a poison and insisting that we never, ever give it to you."

"So, you think that maybe that's what destroyed his speed?"

"I don't have to guess, I know. When you were on Earth-2, Jay admitted that he'd experimented on himself, with drugs similar to Velocity-6. That's what burned the Speed Force out of him. But what if he never had any speed to begin with? What if he's a plant?" Caitlin couldn't believe what she was saying. 

"I could vibe him." Cisco offered, his voice grim with anger. "Find out just what he knows. I'm so pissed right now, I don't even need the goggles. Just need to touch him."

Barry disagreed. "But if you use the goggles, Jay won't know that you've vibed him."

"I don't know if I trust those things anymore."

"Look, guys. I'm worried about leaving Jesse here and Jay here, too. So – " She let out a frustrated sigh, "I'm taking Jay back to my apartment."

"Cait, are you sure you want to do that? If Jay's wrong, you could be in danger."

"I know. I don't want him near me, but I'm worried and that's the only way I can think of to get him out of here."

Cisco offered, "Well, I'm not going home tonight."

Barry added, "Neither am I."

"But unless you're going to sleep outside her door, how will you know she'll be safe?"

"Good point. But you shouldn't bring him to your apartment, you know he'll think you're willing to… " Barry couldn't quite finish that sentence.

Caitlin shook her head, "I mentioned that my couch is comfortable, and I've got something that will knock him out." Caitlin retrieved a vial and a syringe from one of the cabinets. "This will work even in a glass of wine. So my virtue is safe."

"I still think I should vibe him." Cisco insisted, then practically cracked his jaw by yawning.

Concerned, Caitlin asked, "When was the last time either of you slept?"

Barry looked at Cisco, who shrugged. "Probably the night before we left for Earth-Two. Didn't even sleep much then."

Caitlin shook her head. "You need to rest, both of you."

Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't really like the idea of you taking Jay home. What if that doesn't work?" He pointed to the drug she was holding.

"It will. It'll knock out a horse."

"But what about a former speedster?"

Caitlin grimaced. "That's a risk I'm going to have to take. I can't let him stay here. It's just too dangerous. Whatever happens, happens."

Barry wasn't accepting that. "No. That's no how it's supposed to be. Hold on, okay?"

Caitlin waited while he called someone. It sounded like he was talking to Joe, but she couldn't be sure.

Barry ended the call and came back into the med bay. "Joe will drop Iris off and come by your apartment, he'll want to ask you some questions about Geomancer and maybe have you go down to the station. He'll keep you there for a while."

Caitlin nodded rapidly. "Thank you. I hate the idea of Jay being … wrong, but I keep seeing his face. And I keep thinking about the other Wells and how easily he deceived us."

Cisco agreed, "We're not going through that again."

"Not going through what?" Jay was at the door of the med bay.

Barry replied, so Caitlin wouldn't have to lie. "Losing another member of the team."

"Another?"

"Ronnie Raymond, Caitlin's husband." Barry snapped. He left and Cisco followed on his heels.

Caitlin ignored the stab of pain that name brought and gave Jay a weak smile, pushing all the affection and sincerity she could manage into it. "Shall we go?"

"Are you sure?"

Jay smiled back and it was hard to remember that this man was possibly – or more likely – a danger to everyone she loved. _"No, not really._

"Yes, let's."


	4. Chapter 4

**Two Months Ago**

Harry was sore. Taking a bullet to the chest was not an everyday experience. He wasn't as young as he used to be, and who was? Time and stress and grief and worry were taking their toll on him, too. 

For the thousandth time, he wished he hadn't let Snow talk him into staying. Everything was getting too complicated. This thing with Cisco, with Barry, it didn't make sense and it was a distraction he couldn't afford. How many times had he been working on a critical calculation only to zone out to the memory of two warm bodies holding him in the middle of the night, when every path before him lead straight to failure?

In another life, another universe, he might have reveled in this connection, taken them under his wing, found places for them in his life. Not here, though. They never talked about it, not when they were together in that small room off of the Pipeline and certainly not outside of it. That would have been unbearable, a path to insanity and the three of them continued to behave as if this never happened. There were too many times that Barry still could barely look at him, clearly reminded of his evil doppelganger. Cisco seemed less fearful, but there was still a river of bitterness between the two of them.

He was a fool of the worst kind. What started out as an attempt to fix a problem, to expiate a bit of guilt, had taken on a life of its own. Which was why, a little after midnight, a week after Barry's girlfriend shot him, he was creeping through this deserted version of S.T.A.R. Labs, hoping to find, what? Barry? Cisco?

Both of them?

_His boys?_

Harry shook his head, trying to dispel that thought. Barry's girlfriend had likely made their own relationship moot.

Except the room he was expecting to be dark and empty wasn't. The door was partially opened and a blade of light cut across the hallway. Harry paused, listening. He didn't hear conversation, but he smiled. Whatever the boys had going in the outside world, it didn't seem to impact what was between them here. He could hear them kissing, wet and sloppy, and then Cisco moaned. 

_"Don't stop."_

Barry laughed, the sound free and joyous, _"Why would I?"_

Harry listened to his boys making out, the slide of flesh against flesh like a barely audible whisper. Then Cisco asked, _"Do you think he'll come tonight?"_

Harry smiled.

_"Maybe. Do you want me to go find him?"_

_"Yes. No. Maybe"_ Cisco moaned, a thick, guttural sound that was in contrast to his indecision. _"Don't stop."_

Despite the aches and pains, despite his anguish, arousal simmered in him. And why not? This was what he was hoping against hope to find.

Harry wasn't going to stand on ceremony – he was expected, even longed for – and went into the makeshift bedroom with no attempt at stealth. Barry and Cisco, both naked, looked up. Cisco's face was lit with a kind of reluctant joy. Barry was, as usual, wary in his welcoming.

He didn't say anything as he pulled off his sweater and undershirt. They made room for him to sit on the edge of the bed and he struggled a bit to get his boots off, his sore chest made it uncomfortable to bend. Without a word, Barry got up and knelt before him, removing his boots and socks, then his pants and shorts. 

In this small, almost barren room, tended by this beautiful boy, he felt like a king. A high priest. A god. And Harry couldn't help himself. He laughed.

"What's so funny?" Barry looked up at him.

"My own ridiculous thoughts."

Cisco draped himself across Harry's back, planting a hot kiss on the back of his neck. "Wanna share?"

"Not particularly." 

"Mm, okay." Cisco bit his ear and stroked his chest, careful of his injury. "Wanna fuck?"

Harry chuckled, "I think, clever boy, that's why I'm here. Why I'm naked." 

"Good." Cisco pulled him down and started kissing him, slowly, wetly, savoring him like a feast. Harry reached out, trying to draw Barry into the embrace, but the boy stayed just out of reach.

He did something that was quite contrary to his nature, especially in bed. He begged. "Please, join us."

Barry shook his head. "There's no room. Besides, Cisco needs you."

Cisco rested his chin on his shoulder. "Need you, too, Bar. Need both of you. Wouldn't mind watching. Two of my favorite people getting together."

Harry blinked. When had he become one of Cisco's "favorite people"?

"Besides, dude – you need him, too."

Barry's face was composed, unreadable, and for some reason, that hurt Harry more than the bullet wound. "Let me give you what you need." The problem was, he still wasn't sure what Barry needed.

Barry didn't answer but he took his hand and smiled. It wasn't the bright grin he'd often seen after he'd whooshed back into the Cortex after some triumphant victory over the latest criminal or meta-human attack. The smile was the wary, hopeful one, the one that he'd catch whenever Barry didn't know he was looking.

Harry wondered about that smile. Was Barry looking at him and seeing the other Wells? The one he'd called a mentor, the one he'd clearly loved – at least until he was unmasked as a psychopathic murderer? At first, he hadn't cared. He needed Barry and his speed. He needed those two things and only those two things to get his daughter back. But Barry Allen, like any other human, was not something that could be reduced to such simple elements – his heart and his courage inevitably complicated things. And it was Barry's heart, his courage, his steadfast belief in _him_ – despite his conflicted feelings – that made his own resolve to stay apart from these flawed, needy children waver and crumble like a castle built on sand.

Cisco moved and somehow Harry found himself sitting up, his back against the cool concrete wall, holding Barry's hand. He tugged and the boy straddled his legs, their erections kissing, but that was their only contact.

"What do you need?"

Barry didn't answer and he still wore that wary, hopeful smile.

Something clicked. He knew now what Barry needed, he knew what was in his power to give. Just as Cisco needed discipline, Barry needed direction, command. "Mr. Allen, you have to tell me what you need."

It was the _"Mr. Allen"_ that did it. Barry's eyes darkened and he shivered. He opened his mouth, attempting to articulate what he wanted, but he couldn't seem to form the words.

"Come here, Mr. Allen." Harry reached out and wrapped his hand around the back of Barry's neck. He pulled him close and whispered, "Tell me what you need from me."

Barry rested his head on his shoulder, his lips brushing Harry's neck, then his ears.

Harry repeated the command, his voice stern. "Tell me."

Barry shuddered. "Please, tell me what to do."

That was easy enough to give, and nothing he said would be a lie. "Be a hero for me, Barry Allen. Be what you were always destined to become." He kissed Barry on the mouth, something he'd never done before, something that he'd instinctively known Barry was afraid to ask for. The boy's lips were sweet and warm, and Harry smiled as he tasted Cisco's skin on them.

Barry melted into him, but his hunger was restrained. Like the hero Harry asked him to be, Barry was being far too careful with him, careful not to press against his wounds, to cause him any pain. And yet, Harry would welcome that pain – it was a reminder that he was alive.

Cisco had slipped off the cot, but he didn't go far. First, he felt the boy's knuckles, the back of his hand, knocking against him as he stretched Barry, prepping him for Harry's cock. After too many breathless minutes, Cisco's fingers were on his cock, slicking him up. Barry, with his speedster's biology, had no disease to give him and Harry had none to share. But more than that, Barry had once whispered to him that he like it bare, he loved the feel of his semen, the messiness of it. 

Harry wasn't one to deny such a simple request.

With grace more suited to a ballet dancer, Barry rose up and sank down on his cock. Cisco's hands, so wicked and decadent and clever, guided the penetration, and Harry just let himself _feel_. This was pleasure at its purest form, the give and take, the need and want, all expectations set aside and then exquisitely fulfilled.

In Barry's shining eyes and the heat of his body, in Cisco's clever fingers, he was restored.


	5. Chapter 5

**Now, The Morning After Returning To Earth-One**

It was a little before five when Cisco left Barry on the bed in the room they occasionally shared. Barry had finally fallen into something that might resemble sleep; he was twitching and shivering, his feet flicking back and forth – like he was trying to run. He, himself, hadn't slept a wink. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see was Harry dangling from Zoom's claws, the monster laughing at them as they disappeared through the breach.

Like Barry, he didn't accept that there was no way to rescue Harry. Like Barry, he refused to believe that Harry was dead. 

And he was going to prove it. He had two pairs of vibing glasses; the ones that Harry's made and the ones he'd nicked from this doppelganger's corpse. Except, at this point, he didn't trust either of them, but unless he had some kind of nexus back to Harry, he didn't think he'd be able to vibe, especially across dimensions.

But he did have that nexus. 

_Jesse_.

After all, he'd vibed Harry and discovered that his daughter had been kidnapped by Zoom – and she was still on Earth-Two. It made perfect sense that he could use Jesse to find out if Harry was still alive. But his powers never really made any sense and as each hour passed, seemed less and less useful. If it wasn't for his own fucking doppelganger, he'd think that he'd taken it as far as it could go. Reverb scared the shit out of him, but he was sorry he was dead – not only because it felt like part of him died again, too, but for the fact that he'd lost the only person who could teach him anything about.

Once in his workroom, Cisco pulled out a can of Red Bull from a cooler he'd hidden beneath a pile of odds and ends, a place where Harry wouldn't dream of looking. At the thought of Harry, Cisco felt like he was about to lose control and break down again. He tried to tell himself that he was worried because Harry was part of the team, just like Caitlin or Barry – but that really wasn't the whole truth. Somehow, between the moments of terror and contempt, Harry had reaching into the darkness of his soul and made a home there.

Harry was nothing like the fake Wells, something he'd seen a lot sooner than Barry had. Pretty much from their first real conversation, when the newcomer had played the sadist and forced the story of his own murder out of him. Harrison Wells – or more appropriately, Eobard Thawne – would have cozened and charmed and succored him, but only so long as that suited him and his ends.

Harry Wells, who seemed to be a construct of fear and anger and terrifying genius, made it clear he didn't want to care about him, didn't want to need him, but he still gave him exactly what he needed, when he needed it, without asking for anything in return.

For that reason alone, Cisco wouldn't – couldn't – leave him behind.

"Hey there." A soft voice startled him and he spun around. It was Jesse, leaning against the doorway. "I guess you couldn't sleep either."

"Yeah, no." He gestured for her to come in. "How are you doing?"

She shrugged. "Not really okay, but okay?" She wandered around his workroom and stopped at the notation boards. "This is my dad's handwriting."

"Yup. He kind of took over this space when he got here."

Jesse traced some of the numbers. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Dunno. For everything. It seems like I disrupted your lives – my dad coming here to get your help. From what Barry told me last night, you were all pretty fucked up by my dad's doppelganger."

"Eobard Thawne wasn't your dad's double. He was the man who murdered you dad's double. From everything that we've learned, the real Harrison Wells of this Earth was a good guy, someone who wouldn't hurt a fly. And besides, none of this is your fault."

Jesse shook her head. "We argued. The last time my dad and I talked. Jay had just crashed a press conference my dad was holding and accused him of being responsible for the meta-humans. Afterwards, my dad admitted it to me, and I turned my back on him and walked away. I didn't talk to him for months. Then Zoom came and all he kept telling me was that my father didn't care about me."

Cisco shook his head. "That's not true, not at all. Everything single thing he's done has been to get you back. To make sure you're safe."

Jesse didn't take the comfort he offered, "And it seems that he's fucked you over – you and Barry and Dr. Snow – plenty of times to make sure that happened."

"Maybe, but he's helped us, too." Cisco told her about what Harry had done to save Caitlin from Grodd. "He didn't have to do a damn thing."

Jesse didn't respond. Instead, she looked at the two pairs of goggles on his workbench. "What are these?"

"They are supposed to help me vibe. This pair – " He pointed to the simpler one, "your dad made for me. It's supposed to simulate an adrenaline rush that triggers my visions. They didn't work on Earth-Two – or maybe I didn't work of Earth-Two. These – " He picked up the darker and more stylish pair, "I lifted from my evil twin on your Earth. He had a lot more control over this power. He was even able to stop Barry with his vibrations. But he was working for Zoom and Zoom killed him."

Jesse didn't say anything.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories."

"It's all right. I don't think tip-toeing around what happened is going to help me. And we need to get my dad back." She reached for his can of Red Bull, popped the top and drank it without even asking permission.

Cisco couldn't stop the snicker, "Like father, like daughter. Harry never has any trouble taking my things without asking."

At least Jesse had the grace to apologize. "Sorry – it's something that my dad and I used to do all the time. Steal each other's food and stuff."

He was about to give Jesse a hug, but stopped. He felt too close to the edge and he didn't want to get a vibe from her without her permission. 

"Guys?" Barry wandered in, running his hands through his hair. "Guess you couldn't sleep, either."

"Nope." He and Jesse answered simultaneously.

Barry picked up the can that Jesse had stolen from him and made a face. "Red Bull for breakfast?"

In unison, he and Jesse replied, "Breakfast of champions."

Barry blinked. "You two are kind of scaring me." He patted his stomach. "The Big Belly Burger on Main and Pequot is open twenty-four hours. I'm going to get something solid. Your usual, Cisco?"

"Yeah, thanks."

"Jesse?"

"Breakfast burger?" 

"Got it." Barry disappeared in a whoosh of yellow lightning. He was back in less than a minute.

Cisco tore into the food, but noticed that Jesse wasn't eating.

"Not hungry?"

"Not really. None of this feels real, you know what I mean? Like it's all happening to someone else. Or like I'm going to wake up and I'll be back there. You know?"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Barry felt Cisco get out of the bed they were shared. He probably should have followed and given his friend a shoulder to lean on, but he needed some time alone to put away his own demons. The Iris and Barry he left on the other Earth, that Joseph West dead because of him.

Guilt was a familiar blade cutting into him. Ronnie Raymond – this Earth's Ronnie – dead because he couldn't make the hard choices. Eddie's sacrifice, too, was another death because he was foolish, too quick to act and too slow to think.

And Harry. Another victim of his failure. If he hadn't let himself be distracted, or even if he'd been able to get out of that cage without needing someone to prop him up, they'd have all made it back.

Even once they'd gotten Jesse through the portal, he should have been fast enough to stop Jay from tossing the bomb.

Some superhero he was. He couldn't save _anyone_. 

No, that wasn't true. He'd gotten Jesse and Cisco back through the breach. He'd made sure that Iris and Barry from Earth-Two were safe. Barry got up, refusing – this time – to let the gremlins of grief and doubt eat him alive. Not if he was going to figure out a way to reopen the breach and get Harry home.

He got up, pulled on yesterday's clothes, and went to look for Cisco. They had work to do.

He wasn't surprised to find Cisco in his workroom but he was surprised to see Jesse there. Or maybe he shouldn't have been. He was too familiar with what she was going through. After his mother was murdered and his dad jailed, he barely slept. Joe would find him sitting in the kitchen or the den in the early hours of the morning, doing nothing but staring into space, reliving that last, horrible night.

But this wasn't the time or place to be empathetic. Empathy wasn't going to bring Harry home.

Except that empathy seemed to be what Jesse needed.

Thank god Cisco was able to give it, talking to Jesse like a friend, an equal. He finished his meal and looked at the calculations on the notation board. This was the work he'd done with Harry – the breach-busting bombs. Standing there, he worked through math in front of him, hearing the two of them arguing quark-matter theory and he smiled at the memory of how pissed off Harry had been at his quick comprehension of the theoretical mechanics behind the problem. Maybe there was something in these notations that would give him a clue how to reopen the breach.

"Barry?"

Cisco's voice startled him out of his thoughts. "What?"

"I was just going to ask Jesse something."

He looked at his friend, puzzled. "So ask."

"It's a, um, delicate question." Cisco was staring at him, eyes wide open, as if he were trying to telepathically communicate. 

Barry had no clue what Cisco was getting at.

Jesse sighed. "Just ask, okay, because you're freaking me out."

Cisco gave him an annoyed look and Barry chalked that up to another failure.

Cisco turned to Jesse. "I told you about my powers, right? So I was thinking that maybe if I touched you, like I'd touched you dad, I could see him. Make sure he's … all right."

Barry asked, "You don't want to use the goggles?"

"I don't trust them. They didn't work on Earth-Two."

"That's because the vibrations in that universe are different."

"Right. And I'm trying to see between the universes." Cisco shook his head. "Let's go with the old-fashioned method – the one that I know will work."

Barry asked, half-jokingly, "Do you need me to scare you?" 

"Not sure. I'm still pretty hopped up from yesterday." 

Barry realized that they hadn't gotten Jesse's consent yet, and asked, "Are you okay with this?"

"Yeah, definitely. If it will tell me how my dad's doing." Jesse bit her lip and dropped her head. "If he's still alive."

Barry was suddenly hit with a wave of doubt. What if Cisco saw what they all feared? He looked at his friend, and this time he was the one trying to communicate telepathically. _If it's bad, don't tell her, please don't tell her._

Cisco seemed to have gotten the message and gave his a tiny nod back. He took a breath, took Jesse's hand, and closed his eyes. Then opened them, staring out into nothingness.

Except for that time with Dr. Light's helmet – which had been fraught with too many other issues for him to have paid close attention – Barry hadn't observed Cisco when he was vibing without the goggles. His pupils widened, as if they swallowed the universe whole. Time seemed to slow and Barry could hear three heartbeats – his own, Jesse's, and Cisco's, all racing.

Then everything stopped. Cisco's eyes returned to normal, time returned to normal.

"Well?" Jesse was still gripping Cisco's hand. "Is my dad still alive?"

Cisco nodded and swallowed hard. "Zoom has him, but he's alive." 

Barry smiled in relief, until he realized just how pale Cisco was. Jesse didn't seem to notice, as she hugged Cisco, then him.

Cisco shuddered and said "Excuse me," before running out of the workroom.

"My dad's alive." Jesse was glowing. "He's alive." 

Barry wrapped his arms around her, trying not to see Cisco's face before he ran off. "I need to check on Cisco – vibing isn't easy for him. Sometimes he gets sick." That was a plausible lie.

"Okay, okay." Jesse stepped back and wiped her eyes. "I couldn't let myself believe it. Last night, I couldn't let myself think that Zoom didn't kill him immediately."

"We'll be right back." Barry squeezed Jesse's shoulder and went to look for Cisco. He found him in the nearest men's room, heaving over a toilet. He held Cisco's head until he stopped, then helped him over to the sinks to wash up. Cisco was paler than he'd ever seen him, like he'd just come through a long and terrible illness.

"What did you see?"

Cisco shuddered, his eyes filling with tears. He bit his lip and shook his head.

"Can't you tell me?" The dread Barry had felt from the moment he'd found Cisco here increased exponentially. Maybe Cisco had lied to protect Jesse. "Is he dead?"

"No, no. He's alive." Cisco shuddered and wiped his eyes.

"Zoom's torturing him?" 

Cisco was breathing through his mouth; he was turning green – as if he was about to puke again.

"Cisco?"

"He was raping him, Barry. Zoom was raping Harry."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Twenty-nine years ago, the Allied Equatorial Nations of the Americas declared war on the United States of America, and crossed the Rio Grande, quickly taking over Texas and the states that bordered the Gulf of Orleans. Every able-bodied man and woman over the age of eighteen was conscripted into service. It was a farce of the highest order. College students, regardless of their field of study, were commissioned as officers. Graduates were put into command-level posts with barely six weeks of training.

Three months after he'd finished the academic portion of his doctorate, four days after his twenty-first birthday, he reported to the nearest mustering base, where the Powers that Be slapped a pair of butter bars on his collar and told him he was now an infantry captain.

His sergeant, a twenty-year veteran, took pity on him, and the smartest decision Harry had ever made was actually listening to the woman. Her advice was sound and she'd saved his sorry ass and those of the troops under his so-called command a dozen times in the first ten months of the conflict that become known as The War of the Americas.

It was a pity that she'd gotten her brains blown out by an enemy sniper when Command sent them to recapture a small border town in the Mississippi delta. He'd lost half of his troops in that irrelevant engagement and the remaining half were captured and sent to a POW camp in Greater Mexico.

A hundred years earlier, the St. Petersburg Convention granted prisoners of war basic rights, including the prohibition against "moral outrages" against the person and body of a uniformed prisoner. But the invaders had willfully chosen to disregard the Convention – at least for officers – and Harry had been shipped off to Ciudad Huarez for a three-month stint in a brothel.

He'd survived that with his sanity and his sense of self mostly intact. Just as he'd survive whatever abuse Zoom inflicted on him.

Harry pulled himself into a sitting position, ignoring the agony in his lower body. He didn't have much room to maneuver, the chain was short and both of his hands were cuffed. But there was enough room to get his hands to his jacket collar. It took some effort, but he was able to remove a pair of thin, flexible picks, something he'd sewn into this jacket before he'd walked across the dimensions. They were just the right size to open a set of handcuff.

But not to unlock the manacles on his wrists.

_Fuck_

He slipped the lock picks back into his collar and contemplated the situation.

Jesse was safe on Earth-One. Barry and Cisco were safe on Earth-One. The last breach was closed.

Buy Jay Garrick was on Earth-One. Harry looked at the almost obliterated marks on the floor and wondered, _or was he?_

He started tapping, using the same five-by-five code that Jesse had diagrammed out. Unlike he daughter, he didn't need the diagram, it was something he'd used too many times himself.

_r u j_

The man in the mask shook his head.

Harry's stomach lurched. _y did u spel j_

Before the man in the mask could answer, Zoom appeared. With a sick sort of courtesy, the monster asked, _"How are you feeling, Doctor Wells?_

Harry sniffed and refused to give into the visceral terror that Zoom generated. As long as Jesse and his boys were safe, there was nothing to be frightened of. He summoned a grin, "I'm pretty good, thank you for asking. And you?"

His paltry attempt at humor seemed to give the monster pause. But only for a second. "You think you're funny, Doctor Wells. Will you extract my prisoner's speed or am I going to have to persuade you again?"

Harry shrugged. "You can 'persuade' me until I'm dead, Zoom, but I won't do it."

In less than a heartbeat, Zoom was inside the cage, towering over him, a stinking black mountain wreathed in lightning. "I'm going to enjoy trying."

Zoom pushed him to the floor, and pulled down the tattered remnants of his pants before mounting and brutally penetrating him. 

His face crushed against the dirt and stone, his hands bound, the chain cutting across his torso, Harry concentrated on all of these sensations, each grain of dirt pressing into his skin, the chain links biting through his jacket and into his flesh, blood vessels bursting in his knees as they took the brunt of his weight and the weight of the monster on top of him.

Harry divorced his mind from the pain and considered the variables. Did Zoom need the speed or was he merely covetous of it, like a miser needing to add to his hoard? Why the two-day deadline? Why was the other speedster wearing a mask? What was Zoom hiding? And lastly, but not of the least importance, did Zoom share Barry's non-existent refractory period? He hoped not, because that would make survival a bit more difficult.

Zoom came with a heavy grunt, his claws sinking deep into Harry's buttocks and hips, opening the wounds he'd left from their earlier _encounter_. The monster pulled out of him and kicked him, hard. _"Doctor Wells, like the hero that abandoned you, you are nothing and you will always be nothing."_

At that, Zoom was gone. But he'd made a fatal mistake, one that Harry had trouble wrapping his brain around. He gave away his identity. His last words to him - _"you are nothing and you will always be nothing"_ \- were more than just an insult, they were the keys to the monster's identity . Zoom was Jay Garrick, known in certain circles as "Hunter Zolomon."

But the knowledge of Zoom's identity brought him no satisfaction. Jay Garrick had found a way to split himself in two – one monster was here and another was back on Earth-1. His daughter wasn't safe. His boys were in terrible danger.


	6. Chapter 6

Barry kept a worried eye on Cisco. He watched his friend slowly fall apart, then pull himself back together, only to start the process of emotional disintegration all over again.

Once Cisco was composed enough to put on something resembling a smile, they went back to the workroom and started brainstorming with Jesse, trying to think of any way to reopen the portal between their universes.

He'd lost track of the theories the three of them tossed around, the time they'd wasted, when his phone buzzed. It was Joe. He excused himself and took the call in the hallway.

_"Bar, where are you?"_

"At the lab."

_"S.T.A.R. Labs, you mean. Not your lab. The one at your place of employment."_

Barry looked at his watch, it was a quarter past nine. _Damn._ He was late for work. A job he'd loved had suddenly become a nuisance he needed to get rid of. "Look, Joe – "

_"Barry – I can't cover for you today. There are four reports that the D.A. is waiting for – speedy trial motions are dependent on the results. Singh is making noises about firing you."_

Barry closed his eyes and exhaled, thinking, _maybe he should_. He didn't say anything right away, because he didn't want to regret this decision. This wasn't something he could undo with a winsome smile and a few weeks of buying everyone coffee.

"Harry's alive, Joe."

_"You're sure?"_

"Cisco saw him. Zoom has him, and he's … " Barry couldn't bring himself to use the word. And before continuing, he made sure that Jesse wasn't in earshot. "Zoom's torturing him. I can't leave him there."

_"Okay, okay. I'll talk to the Captain."_

"No. Joe – this is my responsibility, not yours. I'll come down to the station and resign if I have to."

_Barry – "_

"Joe, no – don't say it. This is me, figuring out my priorities. Harry's life is what's important now. Stopping Zoom is what matters."

He heard Joe sigh, but thankfully he didn't try to get him to change his mind. 

"I'll be at the station in a few. If Captain Singh starts on the warpath before I get there, please give him my apologies and tell him I need to meet with him as soon as I come in."

Barry disconnected before Joe could reply. He leaned against the wall, feeling a little sick at this new failure. Since his father went to jail for his mother's murder, he'd wanted to do everything to exonerate him. As he grew up and started thinking about careers, he realized that he needed to be part of the system that wrongfully sentenced his father to life behind bars – he needed to do everything possible to keep that from happening to someone else's father.

But lately, the job seemed more of a nuisance than a calling, which wasn't fair to the officers and lawyers who depended on him. Maybe it was time to stop being half a hero.

"Bar? You okay?" Cisco came out of the workroom.

"Fine, but I've got to go down to the CCPD for a bit."

"I keep forgetting you have a day job."

_Not for much longer._ "You okay to hold the fort with Jesse on your own?"

Cisco shrugged. "I'll have to be."

"I'll be back in a little while. And Caitlin will be here soon."

"With Jay." Cisco's tone was flat and unhappy.

"Shove him into a cell in the Pipeline if he's pissing you off too much."

That got a smile. "Yeah. Into the Reverse-Flash's old cell."

Barry hugged Cisco. "Just hold it together for a little while longer."

The meeting with Captain Singh was as unpleasant as Barry expected. But Barry wasn't a cop, he wasn't union, and he didn't have a contract. He was actually a problematic employee who'd racked up significant sick time since he'd started his employment. While the nine months after the particle accelerator explosion was the longest, there were other lengthy absences – like his jaunt to Starling City and his recuperation after Zoom. There were too many other random days when he'd disappeared for hours that couldn't be alibied or explained away. At one point, Barry had considered letting the captain in on his secret, but realized that would be the worst possible idea. The police depended too much on the Flash as it was.

As a testament to the affection the whole department bore for him, after he finished chewing him out, Captain Singh tried to talk him out of resigning – offering him two weeks unpaid leave as a compromise. But Barry wouldn't accept it. After getting Harry back, stopping Zoom was his top priority. If it took two weeks or two months, or – god forbid – two years, he was going to do it. This job would be nothing more than a distraction.

And it wasn't like he needed the paycheck. The Harrison Wells Living Trust provided a healthy income, one which he'd refused to touch before now. But now, it seemed ironically appropriate; the fake Wells supporting him so he could save a real Wells.

He made his exit from the CCPD without any fanfare. Joe was out on a call and Barry didn't want to make a big deal out of it. He didn't have the time or the emotional strength at this point. He sped through the four reports the District Attorney's office needed, packed up the few personal items he kept in his lab. The ones he couldn't easily sneak out, he boxed and would have Joe bring home.

A little over an hour after he'd left Cisco and Jesse, he was back at S.T.A.R. Labs, with no other obligations but rescuing Harry Wells and stopping Zoom.

Cisco gave him a searching look, but Barry just shook his head. There would be time to explain later. 

About an hour after he got back, Caitlin arrived, Jay in tow, and the discussions moved from the workroom up to the Cortex. Everything that Barry or Jesse – who had clearly followed in her father's footsteps – suggested, Jay dismissed as undoable. He kept insisting that even if Harry was alive this morning, he wouldn't be alive for long. Zoom would kill him.

"Guys, look – you're trying to make the impossible happen. The breaches are closed. They aren't doors that you can just pry open with crowbars and sledgehammers." 

The man sounded so reasonable, and yet it grated on Barry's nerves. He finally snapped. "You're a chemist, not a physicist. Your contributions to this discussion are meaningless."

Jay looked at Caitlin, who looked everywhere else. Barry caught a flash of anger on the other man's face, quickly masked.

Cisco spoke up. "Why don't you just leave, like you have every _other_ time there's been a problem."

"Hey, I resent that. I was here when Wells was shot, when you were very conveniently away trying to save your girlfriend. I even injected myself with that damn poison to save his life. I was here, waiting for you to come back and stabilized the speed cannon so you weren't trapped."

Caitlin did a good imitation of the concerned girlfriend. "Jay, maybe it's best if you go for a little while. The tension isn't helping."

But Jay wasn't budging. "No – I don't like what's going on here. I don't like the veiled accusations. I do my best to help and all I'm getting is grief."

"Grief? You want grief?" Barry was done with this. "I'll show you grief." Two seconds later, Jay was in a cell in the Pipeline. "This is where you should have been from the moment you got here."

His team – including Jesse – followed as fast as they could, and to no one's surprise, Jay tried to plead his case with Caitlin. 

She wasn't having any of it. "Jay, there are too many inconsistencies in your stories. Too many things that don't make sense. Too many lies. If Barry thinks you need to be in the Pipeline, I'm not going to try to change his mind."

Jay turned to him. "Barry, please. Why would you think I'm working against you? Didn't I teach you what I knew? Didn't I help you when you asked?"

Barry countered, "Didn't you disappear when Zoom appeared? Didn't you do your best to foster suspicion about Doctor Wells? You've done everything you could to turn us against him."

"I saved his life."

"Only because Caitlin begged you to." Barry shook his head. "You'll stay here until we can figure out what to do with you."

He felt no small about of satisfaction when Caitlin pressed the control panel that dropped the cover on the cell. She looked like she was going to cry, but Cisco – who was still dealing with his own trauma – wrapped an arm around her and the four of them headed away from the Pipeline, away from the man who had done his best to fracture them.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Jesse felt better now that Jay Garrick was in a cell, the "Pipeline" as Cisco called it. They'd apparently turned the containment cells in the failed particle accelerator into a meta-human prison. She wondered about the plumbing, but didn't care enough to ask.

Garrick creeped her out. It wasn't just that he had done his best to damage her father's reputation. At the time, she'd taken his revelations as gospel, which resulted in that terrible argument. But in the short while she'd been here, in the handful of moments she'd been in his company, there was something about him that made her flesh crawl, like a milder version of how she'd felt whenever Zoom had been near.

Maybe it was because he was responsible for trapping her father, or maybe it was the questions that the man in the mask had raised when he spelled out "Jay", or maybe – just maybe – Jay Garrick wasn't the hero he pretended to be. Maybe he was wrong and twisted and she needed to listen to what her gut was telling her.

"You okay?" Barry gave her a worried look. "I hope that didn't bother you. I know that Garrick's a hero on your Earth."

"I don't trust him. I'm glad you locked him up."

Barry nodded. "Good. I didn't want to upset you, but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that Garrick's involved with Zoom."

"What about Doctor Snow? I thought that they were friends."

"She also has suspicions."

That was true; the woman hadn't tried to stop Barry from locking Garrick up. "So what now?"

They were back in the Cortex, and Barry said, "Now we take stock of our assets and figure out a plan."

Cisco looked up and actually smiled. "Dude, did you just make a _Princess Bride_ reference?"

Jesse couldn't help it, "You have _The Princess Bride_ here?"

Cisco smiled, "Of course. Apparently most of our pop culture entertainment is the same. We've got _Star Wars_ and _The Godfather_ , too. When we get Harry home, we'll have movie nights and argue about which Earth's version is better."

Cisco's unwavering certainty that they'd bring her dad back here – _home_ – made her want to cry. She sniffled, but no one crowded her. Doctor Snow just handed her a tissue. She blew her nose and asked, "So – what are our assets?"

"Barry's speed, my vibing, and a whole lot of excellent scientific equipment."

"How did you know how to close the breaches? 

Barry answered, "We used quark-matter bombs. The fake Wells had published an article about the utility of the electromagnetic insulation of CFL quark matter. Which was – of course – generations ahead of its time."

Jesse asked, "Is it possible to reverse engineer that?"

That question seemed to catch everyone by surprise. 

"It is, but we – " Barry gestured around the room, "don't have the actual knowledge of how to do that. Your dad would probably know, though. Would you?" 

She shook her head. "That's advanced, even for me. Pity you couldn't go back in time and ask the imposter."

Everyone in the room looked at here, and it was as if she'd uttered a magic spell. "Wait, you _can_ time travel. You said so last night."

"Dude, you can't go back in time and talk to the Reverse-Flash. You know what that will do to the timeline?" Cisco shook his head. "You could wipe yourself – and us – out of existence."

Barry paced. "No, let's think about this. What if the Reverse-Flash didn't know he was talking to me?"

Jesse had no clue where Barry was going with this. "Who would he think he was talking to?"

But Cisco got where Barry was going, and grinned. "Himself."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Cisco hated the Time Vault. Too many bad, bad things happened here. By unspoken agreement, no one came here, no one activated Gideon, and unless Wells had needed to put on that damn yellow suit, it stayed in its place of dishonorable display behind one of those crazy braille-like panels.

But now, it just might be the key to Harry's salvation.

Barry stood there, looking at it, disgust and anticipation at war on his face. "I'm really going to do this, aren't I?"

"If you can. But you know there's more to the Reverse-Flash than the suit. There's the whole buzzing thing and the red eyes. He's not going to believe he's talking to himself if you aren't _exactly_ like him.

Barry nodded, then started to vibrate. "It's all a matter of pulling on the Speed Force." His voice wasn't quite the same, but as the seconds passed, the vibrations got louder. Barry's frame started to shimmer, the edges of his body were losing definition. Just like the Reverse-Flash's.

"Yeah, you've got it. Can you do the eyes?"

"I don't know – his lightning signature was red, mine's yellow."

Jesse, however, had a good contribution. "Color is just the wave length of light. Can you vibrate at the right frequency?"

It seemed like Barry nodded. "Yes, just tell me when I'm at red, okay?"

Under different circumstances, it would have been kind of amusing. Barry's eyes were glowing every color of the rainbow, sometimes multiple colors – like a Pride flag – until he finally managed to find the correct shade of red.

"Got it, amigo."

Barry stopped vibrating and his eyes returned to normal. "Okay, let's give it another dry run before I put that suit on." He started buzzing and his eyes turned that creepy red.

"Dude, you've got it. And it's making me kind of sick."

Barry stopped and returned to his normal self and reached for the suit. 

Caitlin, however, wasn't convinced that this was a good idea. "Barry, how are you going to keep from altering the timeline? The Reverse-Flash wasn't – isn't – stupid. He kept up a masquerade for fifteen years. He'd going to hear your voice and know. Not that it's you, but that it's not him."

"What if Barry doesn't talk at all?" Cisco had an idea. "Isn't access to Gideon built into the suit?"

Barry caught on immediately. "We can program her – it – to speak for me, even through the vibrations. The Reverse-Flash will trust Gideon implicitly. That will be the one thing that will convince him he's talking to an alternate of himself. After all, if he thought the future me was masquerading as the Reverse-Flash, I wouldn't be talking to him, I'd be trying to kill him. Our epic, centuries-long battle, right?" Barry went over to the command panel and summoned the A.I. 

As it had the last time, the hologram responded to Barry with courtesy and compliance, accepting all of Barry's instructions. The four of them built a script that would hopefully convince the Wells imposter that he was talking to a dimension hopping version of himself.

Barry looked at him, at Caitlin and Jesse. "I'm really going to do this, aren't I?"

"You okay with it? Seeing him again." Cisco knew how badly this was going to affect his friend. Their encounter with the Reverse-Flash in his original form had been hard enough, but traveling back in time and seeing him as the man they knew, the man that had been a friend, a colleague, a mentor, and eventually a lover, was going to be hellaciously difficult.

"I have to be, right? This is the only way we're going to get Harry back. And it's kind of poetic, don't you think? Fake Harrison Wells getting tricked into giving me information to save a real Harrison Wells." Just as his money was going to support him in this quest.

Cisco corrected him. "Harry." He tried not to think about what he saw this morning. He focused on the simple fact that Harry was alive.

Barry nodded, understanding what he was thinking. "Harry. We do this for Harry."

They all took a moment to absorb the sentiment, then Cisco shooed Caitlin and Jesse out of the Time Vault. "Boy's got to get suited up, and this probably won't be pretty."

Barry was staring at the suit. "It should fit, right?"

"You and the Reverse-Flash are about the same height, but you're a little less – " Cisco gestured at his own arms and chest, "Bulky."

"I'm skinny, you mean."

"Yeah, dude. Glad it's not me crawling into that horror."

"It is kind of horrible, isn't it?" Barry finally touched it. "It's like leather, but not."

Cisco grimaced. "You going to flash into it or what?"

Barry made a face. "I guess."

There was a small cyclone in the Time Vault as Barry sped into the yellow and black suit. Then, "Ouch, ouch, ouch, OUCH!"

"What's the matter?"

"Goddamn Reverse-Flash has shorter legs. I think I might have just castrated myself." Barry was pulling at the suit's crotch, desperately trying to give himself and his gonads a little more room.

"I hope you're not naked under that."

"God, no! Cisco, I'm never naked under the suit. That's just gross."

"Well, Harry was the last one to wear that, and considering where his junk has been, it's not _that_ gross." 

"Don't tell me that Harry went commando when he was fighting Grodd. I don't think I wanted to know that."

Cisco sniffed. "I don't think I do, either." His friend sobered up too quickly, remembering what he saw happening to Harry.

Barry tried to distract him, "Come on, help me. You're the master tailor, among your many other talents."

"True, true." Not that he could actually tailor this thing. The materials were too heavy, too weird for his skills. The suit he'd first made for the Central City Fire Department and repurposed for the Flash weighed about an eighth of this, it was designed for flexibility and speed. This suit seemed like it was meant for battle, with the spaulder-like patches from the shoulder to the armpits and the heavy gorget the protected the neck and throat and chest area.

While the lower part of the suit was tight – and Barry finally got his bits properly adjusted – the upper section was big, a lot roomier than the Flash suit – Eobard, as Wells and as himself was simply broader across the chest. "Wonder if you should wear something underneath that, to fill it out."

"Good idea."

Another mini-cyclone and the suit was hanging better on Barry's torso. "I put my shirt on underneath.

"Put the cowl on."

Barry paused and stared at him. "Remember, Cisco – I'm not him. I'll never be him."

"I know. Do it."

Barry pulled the heavy yellow cowl over his head, tucking his hair away. Without warning, his eyes turned red and he began to vibrate. Cisco _knew_ it was Barry inside the suit, but it was all he could do to not wet his pants. Then Barry stopped and turned back into himself. "Well?"

"Dude, you've nailed it. Make sure Gideon's on-line."

Barry head out his hand and summoned the A.I. 

_"Hello, Barry Allen. Or shall I call you Professor Thawne now?"_

"Until I return to this timeline and remove the suit, please refer to me as Professor Thawne."

_"Very well, Professor Thawne. Safe travels."_

Cisco gestured for Barry to exit the Time Vault. "Barry, you're waddling."

"The damn thing's still pinching my junk. Hold on." 

Cisco wasn't sure if he was going to laugh or cry when Barry undid the lower part of the suit and adjusted himself again, right there in the hallway. "Good now?"

Barry took a few experimental steps. "Yeah, I think so. Not waddling anymore?"

"Nope, you're a graceful and elegant banana. One that's about to travel back in time to question a murderous impostor who may try to kill you on sight, you know that."

"No, he won't. He'll be too curious. Thawne – at least as we knew him – loved puzzles. This one will be too enticing. And he's a narcissist; he won't be able to resist the idea of helping an alternate version of himself."

"I hope so." As they walked back to the Cortex, Cisco had to ask, "Are you going to tell Joe and Iris what you're going to do."

"No. I can't. You know Joe will try to talk me out of it, and Iris – I can't imagine how hurt she'll be – with Eddie and all."

"Yeah. This has all the makings of a really terrible idea. So many things could go wrong."

"You don't have to tell me that."

"But you're going to do this and you're going to come back and the timeline won't change because you won't do something stupid like beating that fake bastard to a pulp."

"Nope."

"Or kiss him until you make a mess inside that thing." Cisco bit his lip. They'd never, _ever_ talked about the things they'd both done with the fake Wells, how much worse the betrayal was for that. 

But Barry managed to sweep that all aside. "We have Harry, and he's a thousand times the man that the fake was or could ever be. I need to do this to bring him home."


	7. Chapter 7

**Five Years Before the Particle Accelerator Exploded**

Throughout dinner, the man known as Harrison Wells fantasized about killing that walking corpse called Wade Eiling. 

Over starters – a slab of perfectly crisp pork belly with a salad of spicy micro-greens – he thought about disemboweling the man, but decided against it. That would be too messy. During the main course, he considered smashing Eiling's skull in and pulling out his brains, if just to get him to shut up. The moron wouldn't stop talking, doing his best to ruin Harrison's enjoyment of an unutterably delicious hunk of aged beef. By the time they got to dessert, Harrison figured he'd just slit the general's throat and let him drown in his own blood.

Vibrating his hand through the man's chest cavity and destroying his heart was just too easy.

He wasn't normally so violent and blood-thirsty, except there was something about Wade Eiling that made him want to go to extremes. 

He didn't, though. S.T.A.R. Labs needed the legitimacy that the military contracts would bring. And the money wouldn't hurt, either. It hadn't taken much effort to build a fortune in this backwards century. He had Gideon and centuries of financial and historical data at his fingertips, literally. It took less than six months to turn the meager contents of the dead Wells' bank accounts into a multi-million dollar fortune. But why use his own money when the Government had plenty to share?

The evening finally ended when Harrison declined Eiling's offer of a cigar and brandy back at his apartment. He wondered if the man wanted more than just a continued discussion on the theoretical uses of torture to enhance psychic ability. Eiling just didn't seem the type, though.

The drive back to his house, with Mozart playing softly in the background, soothed the jagged edges left by this unpleasant evening. He'd have a glass of scotch, check in on the boring doings of his eventual nemesis, and get some sleep. Tomorrow was an important day. The S.T.A.R. Labs team was presenting the final plans for the particle accelerator to the city for approval. Of course, he was leading the presentation and needed to be at his charming best.

He stepped into his house – his sanctuary – and felt the last of the evening's tension drain. More Mozart as he took off his jacket and poured himself a generous glass of MacAllen. There were just a few things he'd miss about this barbaric century, such as the excellent alcohol and the far-too-plentiful beef. He'd have to enjoy them while he could.

He sipped the scotch and let the fragrance roll around in his head. The alcohol didn't affect him. Despite his broken connection to the Speed Force, he still had a speedster's quick metabolism. But the sensual pleasure of a good single-malt was probably the closest thing to that connection with the Speed Force that he could get right now. Tonight he could even taste it, like ozone after a storm.

Except that he wasn't tasting the scotch. Harrison put the glass down and gathered the stunted threads of his speed. There was another speedster nearby and he was in no condition to do battle.

Could the Flash have traced him to this century? Would he risk everything to eliminate him now? The man who called himself Harrison Wells was caught up in a terrible moment of indecision. And that indecision presented him with an extraordinary paradox. _He_ had just phased through the glass walls.

At least it looked like him. That was _his_ suit and _his_ eyes, and the buzzing was as familiar as his own heartbeat, but _he_ shimmered and it was impossible to be certain.

Then _he_ held out his hand and Gideon appeared. _"Good evening, Professor Thawne. We need your assistance."_

His blood sang at that appellation. There was no one alive who knew him by that name, and even if this was the Flash in disguise, he wouldn't be standing here, asking for help. He'd be throwing him through the glass or maybe into the fire. He'd be dead already.

"How can I help _me_?" He took a step closer, enticed by the Speed Force radiating off of this creature and the very paradox itself. To his disappointment, he – this delicious alternate – took a step back.

Gideon still spoke for him, _"We are trapped here and we need to leave as soon as possible."_

"Yes, of course we are trapped. But you have the Speed Force, why just not go forward in time? You don't have to remain stuck in this backwards century."

_"It's not time, but dimension, Professor Thawne. We came through a breach that was closed by some foolish intervention. We need to reopen that breach and return to our proper Earth. The Speed Force is unpredictable when dimension-hopping."_

Harrison blinked. He'd never considered the possibilities of inter-dimensional travel. "Tell me more."

_"No."_

"Is that all you – _I_ – am going to say?"

_"We cannot risk sharing this knowledge, Professor Thawne. There is too much danger to the timeline."_

_Of course._ Harrison felt like he'd been slapped. He'd been so enamored with the idea of himself here and whole, of hearing his own name, he'd completely forgotten his endgame – Barry Allen, creating the Flash. "You know why _I'm_ stuck here, though. Maybe we can assist each other. I get you home to your world; you help me get back to mine."

_"No."_

"Why not?" He took another step closer, but his alternate stepped back.

_"The timeline must not be damaged, Professor Thawne. There is too much at stake, for this world and for mine."_

Harrison sighed. He wasn't surprised, time was tricky and fickle. "Very well. Tell me what you need."

Gideon displayed an exploded-diagram of a bomb-like device. _"This was used to implode the breach between our realities. It was detonated prematurely."_

"Hmm. Color-flavor-locking strange matter – the insulating properties would not only contain the radiation, but would consume it and jettison it to a non-phased dimension. But basing this on the Cooper Pairing theory is … primitive. Was this created here? By these backwards creatures?" 

_"Yes."_ Gideon was maddeningly terse.

"And you want to create a new breach?"

_"That would be dangerous and lead to inter-dimensional instability and a high degree of uncertainty. It would be preferable to reopen the breach that was closed."_

Harrison grinned. "I never do anything the easy way, do I?"

Of course neither he – nor Gideon – answered that question.

"If it was possible to see where this breach existed – "

_"See? Why?"_

"There is equipment at our lab which, if calibrated properly, could read the vibrational signature. This inter-dimensional breach existed in multiple plans and would have left a shadow. If we could determine the frequency of those vibrations, it becomes theoretically possible to open and close the breach at will." He waved a hand at the diagram Gideon was still displaying. "This device is effective, but crude. Like using an axe when you needed a scalpel. It's a pity that we can't generate a tachyonic field to re-maximize the instability."

"Tachyons, Professor Thawne? As you pointed out, this is a dimensional problem, not a time or speed problem."

"Why are you – why am I – thinking so laterally? I'm such a disappointment. It is a vibration problem." Harrison chuckled. "Just as they enhance our speed, tachyon particles will bring the past and the present and the future together into a singular _now_ , which will create a state where the breach is opened, closed and non-existent at any given moment."

_"Thank you, Professor Thawne. That is the information we need."_

"It's a pity, though, that there's still no viable tachyonic field generator in this time. That would solve so many problems." Harrison shrugged. "But not all of them." 

"If we can acquire the tachyonic field generator, how would we handle the time distortions?"

They talked about how to deploy the tachyons, the positioning of the strange matter and how to turn the reopened breach into a stable gateway that would only open with a key. It was an exhausting exploration of a theory he hadn't previously given much thought about. But the possibilities were extremely intriguing.

He looked at his dimensional alternate, still standing there, still vibrating, still so enticing. "Are you certain that any closer contact would damage the timeline?"

_"Yes, Professor Thawne. We are damaging it now. Further contact will cause irreparable and irreversible harm."_

Harrison sighed and couldn't help but brush his hand over his tumescent groin. The idea of fucking himself – his real body, not this flawed model – was a pleasure he'd have to forego. Maybe after he returned to his future, after he killed the Flash, he'd find a way to make this happen. Find one of those dimensional breaches, open it up, and go looking.

_"Goodbye, Professor Thawne. Again, thank you for your assistance."_

"So, this is it?"

His alternate lowered his hand and Gideon disappeared. A heartbeat later, he phased through the glass and disappeared into the darkness. Harrison raced to the window, just in time to see a trail of lightning vanish into the distance. He wasn't sure, but it looked yellow.

Or he could have been mistaken.


	8. Chapter 8

**Now, The First Afternoon and Evening After Returning to Earth-1**

Shortly after talking to Barry, Joe was assigned to oversee the transport of several felons to Iron Heights, then got called to deal with a homicide. It was after two by the time he got back to the station, only to find himself pelted with questions about Barry and rumors that he'd resigned without warning.

Captain Singh cut through the bullshit and called him into his office. "Allen quit this morning."

Joe swallowed against the sourness in his mouth. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Sorry?" David Singh's eyebrows arched to the ceiling. "Sorry? That's a pretty meaningless word. Your foster son quits without even offering the slightest reason and that's all you can say?"

"Barry has some personal issues he needs to deal with." Joe knew how lame that sounded.

"I know Barry's got issues and his life hasn't been a bed of roses, but I figured with his father exonerated, he'd be a lot steadier. Except it's only gotten worse – unexplained absences, illnesses that just crop up out of nowhere. But damn it, Joe, I like him and he's the best damn CSI on the staff. I hate the thought of losing him." Singh shook his head, more in sorrow than disgust. "I offered him two weeks unpaid leave. He turned that down, flat."

"I wish I could tell you what's going on."

"But you either can't or won't, will you?"

"No."

"Just between you and me, I'm going to slow-roll recruiting a replacement. If Barry changes his mind, he's got about a month before I can't bring him back."

"I can't make any promises for Barry, but I'll let him know."

"That's all I can ask. And when you talk to him, tell him he's going to be missed. By everyone."

"I will."

Joe went into the bullpen and spent the next few hours fending off questions about Barry. He hated the idea that his foster-son resigned from a job he loved, but he understood his reasons. Even before this latest disaster, he wondered how much longer Barry was going to be able to balance his two lives. It wasn't hard to see how being the Flash, and everything that entailed, was taking over his life. And no matter how fast that boy was, he still couldn't be in two places at the same time – at least not without causing some serious problems.

Barry had left a couple of cartons under his desk and a stack of reports on top – the one's he'd chastised him about just this morning. That boy might frustrate the hell out of him, but he'd never leave him in the lurch.

Joe dropped the reports off and a few hours later, headed out to S.T.A.R. Labs. He had questions for Barry – like why he needed to keep Caitlin and Jay tied up with questions about Geomancer for hours last night. And why Caitlin seemed unhappy about being left alone with Jay when he dropped them back at her apartment a little after two this morning.

Cisco, Caitlin and Harry's daughter, Jesse were in the Cortex, but there was no sign of Barry. The suit was still on display, so he figured his foster son was somewhere nearby.

Cisco looked up and gave him a less than enthusiastic "Hey, Joe."

The atmosphere in the room seemed tense. "Okay… What's going on? Where's Barry?" 

"Ummm, Barry's not around right now." Caitlin was biting her lip and not quite looking at him.

He pinned Caitlin and Cisco with his best "Detective West" stare, but they'd become immune to it and said nothing. The girl, though, it might work on her. "Miss Wells? How are you doing?"

"I'm okay." The girl shrugged. "Thank you for asking, Detective West. You can call me Jesse."

"Jesse, thank you. And you should call me Joe." Now that the courtesies were out of the way, he tried the interrogator's glare on here. "Do you know where Barry is?"

She nodded, but that was it. She was immune, too, it seemed. 

Joe got a sinking feeling. "Don't tell me he found a way to reopen the breach and went back for Harry. Alone. Without his suit."

Cisco answered, "Hell, no!" 

"Thank goodness. That boy always lets his heart get in the way of his survival instinct."

"No, he just went back in time to talk to Eobard Thawne about how to do that." Caitlin blurted out, then slapped a hand over her mouth.

"What?" Joe wasn't sure he heard that correctly. "Did you say he went back in time?"

"Yeah, to talk to the fake Dr. Wells." Cisco offered, as innocent as a four year old.

"Whose idiotic idea was that?" Joe thought he was about to explode. "No, you don't have to tell me. Barry thought that up all by himself. And none of you tried to stop him?"

"It makes sense, actually." Jesse said before the others could answer. "If Eobard Thawne's idea was used to create the breach implosion devices, he would be the best one to know what could be done to reverse the implosion."

"Great – Barry went back in time to ask his mortal enemy to help save the man who just happens to be his mortal enemy's doppelganger. That's irony for you. But how is he going to get the fake to cooperate?"

"He wore the Reverse-Flash's suit. And does a credible imitation of a giant hummingbird." Cisco buzzed and Joe wanted to smack him.

"So what happens now? We just wait until Barry puts his foot in his mouth and changes the timeline? Wipes us all from existence?"

No one said anything. Of course not. They were all worried about the same thing. Then Joe realized they were missing someone. "Um, where's Jay?"

That question got him another round of sheepish looks.

"What's going on?"

"Jay's in the Pipeline. We're not so sure he is who he says he is." Caitlin looked at her hands. "I think I was fooled into believing he was something he wasn't."

Cisco cut her off. "We all thought he was a good guy, Caitlin. But remember, we thought that the fake Wells was a good guy, too."

Joe noticed Jesse glaring at everyone. It probably hurt to hear that all the time. "Guys, maybe we should refer to the other Doctor Wells as 'Eobard' or 'the Reverse-Flash' or just 'the Imposter'? It's kind of insensitive to keep called him 'fake Wells'." He tilted a head towards Harry's daughter. He might not like Harry Wells, but this child brought out all his protective fatherly instincts.

Jesse shot him a grateful smile when everyone agreed.

"So, that whole thing about keeping you at the station until two AM was just to –"

"Keep Jay from getting ideas about Caitlin. She – we – didn't want him hanging around here with Jesse. Seemed too risky. And going back to her apartment seemed the best way to keep him out of here."

Joe scrubbed his face and thought, _what angel is watching over these children?_ "So, you've put him in the Pipeline. He went tamely?"

"Barry didn't give him much choice. He kept saying that there was no way to get the breach opened and my dad was already dead. And next thing, Barry just – " Jesse made a whooshing gesture with her hands, "took him away and put him in a cell."

"He can't get out?" Joe looked at Caitlin. "Would he be able to do what Barry does, phase through things?"

"No, not really. He says doesn't have access to the Speed Force anymore. And besides, those cells have the anti-meta-human tech in them, and they held the Reverse-Flash before he lost his connection to the Speed Force."

"Right." Joe rubbed the back of his neck and settled down to wait. When did his life become something out of a science fiction novel? Meta-humans, time-traveling, dimension hopping. He was too old for this shit. But he didn't really have a choice, did he?

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Once he was back in the present, circling the S.T.A.R. Labs parking lot, Barry dropped out of the Speed Force and ran into the Cortex, anxious to impart the information the fake Wells had shared and more anxious to ensure that the timeline hadn't changed.

He also desperately needed to get out of this damn yellow suit.

Cisco and Caitlin and Jesse were waiting for him. Joe was there, too, and he had his gun drawn and at a ready-to-fire position. They were all sporting similar looks of concern, at least until he came to a stop and pulled off the cowl. 

He nodded and everyone smiled. Joe re-holstered his gun and enveloped Barry in an-almost suffocating hug. "You are an idiot, Bar – not telling me what you were going to do! What if you never came home?"

Barry extricated himself and smiled. He didn't want to say to Joe that if he didn't come back, he would likely have been wiped from existence, and none of this would have matter. Instead, he just said, "It's fine. It worked and I'm home. Nothing has changed."

His eyes found Jesse, who was holding onto herself – as if she was about to break into a million pieces. "You okay?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah. Just tell me you know what to do to get the breach re-opened and get my dad back."

"I do." 

He thought Jesse was going to drag him to a workstation and insist he start working, but Cisco stepped in. "Let him get out of that suit, it's freaking all of us out."

Barry grabbed Cisco, and made a general announcement. "Yeah, and I'm going to need some help getting out of this, so we'll be right back."

He nyoomed them down to the Time Vault, and Cisco glared at him. "Warn a guy, won't you."

"Sorry." Barry started pulling the yellow suit off.

"You really don't need my help, do you?"

"I've been dressing and undressing myself for nearly a quarter-century, I think I can manage this." Finally free of the yellow abomination, Barry sped into his street clothes. "How are you holding up?"

Cisco shrugged. "I'm trying not to think about what I saw. I try to just remember that Harry's alive. But it's hard. I look at Jesse and she's so strong. She spent four months with that monster and she's with us, sleeves rolled up and ready to work. How can I collapse when faced with strength that?" An involuntary sob escaped and Cisco looked like he was a heartbeat from breaking apart.

Barry wrapped and arm around his friend, holding him close. "You can't. We need you. They'll be time after this is all over, I'll take care of you then. Okay?" He loosened his hold and tipped Cisco's chin up, repeating "I'll take care of you. I'll make sure Harry's okay, whatever needs to be done, I'll do it. Trust me."

Cisco nodded. "I do, of course I do." He rubbed his eyes. "I'll be all right. Just …"

"Yeah, just…"

Cisco regrouped and asked, "So how was it? As creepy as you expected."

Barry scrubbed his face, wishing he could take a shower. "Worse. It was amazingly awful. Thawne was ..." Barry couldn't bring himself to say it.

"What? Evil? Like now that you know what he was doing, that you can see everything that he'd hidden from us kind of evil?"

"Yeah, but worse than that."

"What do you mean? How could it be worse?"

"He was coming on to me." There, he spat the words out.

"What?" Cisco looked at him like he was crazy. 

Barry retrieved the glove with Gideon's module. He had set it to record everything from the moment he entered the Reverse-Flash's house, and now fast-forwarded it to the end. He let Gideon display the last few moments of his trip into the past. "Look."

The lighting wasn't the best. Most of the conversation took place near the room-length fireplace, and the flames made it seem like the conversation was taking place in one of the circles of Hell, but Harrison Wells – the man they'd thought of as Harrison Wells – was clearly visible.

"Dude, is he … touching himself?"

Barry nodded. "He really, really wanted to get closer. I had to keep reminding him that any further contact would damage the timeline. There was a point when I think he might have been willing to ditch his plans about me – the Flash, I mean – to, you know … "

"To get into his own pants? Oh my god, the fake Wells was even more fucked up that we ever thought." Then Cisco coughed. "That's not to say that given the chance …"

"You'd do it with Reverb?" It actually felt good to joke about this.

"Eww, no. Not with my evil twin, but …" Cisco hiccoughed a laugh, a welcome sound.

Barry shook his head. "Let's just drop it. I don't want to think of you having sex with yourself, because then I'd have to think of me having sex with myself and that's just…" He shuddered. "Besides, while I now know that we _can_ reopen the breach, doing so is going to present another problem altogether."

Back in the Cortex, Barry shared what he'd learned. "According to what the Reverse-Flash said, there still should be detectable traces of the breach, and that there was equipment here in S.T.A.R. Labs that could find it." He looked to Cisco, who he hoped would know what that was.

"There is, it's what we used the find the breaches in the first place. It'll require a lot of recalibration but I think I have something better." Cisco picked up both sets of vibing glasses. "I think, if I overlay the frequencies for each set of lenses, I'll be able to detect the residual resonance." 

Jesse asked, "And then what? Just because you can see the breach resonance doesn't mean you will know how to reopen them."

"That's where things get tricky. Gideon recorded the details, but the biggest problem is, we need a tachyonic field generator."

Cisco and Joe both uttered, "Shit" at the same time. 

Caitlin looked appalled. "You are not robbing Christina McGee again. That poor woman's been through enough."

"Christina McGee?" Jesse asked?

Caitlin explained, "She's the head of Mercury Labs. We've had some dealings with her – and unfortunately, she's always come out on the losing side. And your dad stole his pulse rifle from her facility when he arrived here."

Jesse nodded, but there was a strange look in her eyes. Barry wondered what Dr. McGee was to the girl on her home Earth. No time to explore that now.

Joe asked, "So, how are you going to convince Doctor McGee to give up her tachyonic research, _again_?"

"I was thinking of offering her the truth. About everything. Thawne, the imposter, the real Wells, the multiverse." Barry cast his gaze around the room. "And about me. The Flash."


	9. Chapter 9

There were very few things that Tina McGee liked less than reviewing government-mandated paperwork. But she had a policy of never signing anything without reading it first, and these forms – for certain military-grade projects – needed her signature as both CEO and Chief Scientist. So she sat in her well-guarded office on the thirty-first floor of Mercury Labs and waded through page after page after page of government double-speak.

Since the second incident with the crazy meta-human in the yellow suit a few months ago, she'd taken steps to upgrade her physical security. It was bad enough that the creature had robbed her not once, but twice, but the last time, bastard almost killed her. If it wasn't for the timely intervention of Central City's very own meta-human vigilante, the Flash, she'd be dead. And Tina wasn't quite sure how she felt about that.

Not that she wanted to be dead, but that she owed her life to a masked man who seemed to exist beyond the rule of law. The Flash was an enigma she'd give her right arm to explore – his speed, his ability to move through solid objects. All very useful and seemingly impossible talents. But there were too many people with impossible talents these days and she had a standing policy against exploring – or exploiting – them. 

_She had ethics._

Jerri, her wife, was fond of teasing her that she was the most ethical weapons developer in Central City. She routinely created things that could kill millions and then refused to sell them.

Thinking of Jerri reminded her that their anniversary was in two weeks and she still hadn't figured out a present. What do you get a woman who has everything? Tina sighed. Jerri would tell her that all she'd want is for her wife to come home safe and eat a home-cooked meal together before falling asleep in front of the television. And then have some screaming sex after then went to bed.

She reviewed the last set of papers, signed them and was about to call for her security detail and driver when the Flash appeared. This time, he didn't materialize through a solid wall, but zipped into her office in a rush of lightning. She reached for the gun she kept in her desk, but at the same time realized that the Flash could probably catch the bullets, making it a very ineffective weapon.

"Doctor McGee, I'm sorry if I've frightened you." The Flash held up both hands in a gesture meant to convey peace and good intentions.

"I'm not frightened. Curious, though." _And a little worried_ "Where are my guards?"

"Right where they should be. At their posts. I was moving too fast for them to see me."

"You haven't hurt them?"

"No, of course not!" The Flash actually seemed outraged by the idea.

"You don't hurt people."

"Not unless they are harming others."

"Yes, I've read that about you. You save people. You saved Central City when the singularity appeared, or so the news reports said."

The Flash shrugged. "I played a part in that."

Modest, too. "What do you want from me?"

"When the Reverse-Flash – "

"'Reverse-Flash'? That's the name of the creature that kidnapped me? The thing in yellow that tried to steal the tachyonic field emitter two years ago?"

"Yes. That's what he calls himself. The reverse of me."

"Interesting. As you were saying?"

"The Reverse-Flash had needed your tachyonic field emitter to help him return to his own time."

Tina stopped the Flash again. "Time? What are you saying? That this Reverse-Flash creature was not from this _now_?"

"Exactly, he's from the future and he needed the tachyon particles to help propel him through time."

"Well, that does make a strange sort of sense. Tachyons are constantly moving at the speed of light."

"Have you been able to rebuild the emitter?" The Flash's question was pointed and abrupt.

"Why do you need to know?"

"I need it."

Tina shook her head. "No. I've already lost this research twice. It's too valuable. And don't even think of trying to take it." She stared at the Flash, trying to see through the mask and figure out the man's identity – a secret that all of Central City would give their firstborn to know.

"What would it take to convince you to lend it to me?"

"Lend? You're really planning on giving it back?" 

"I understand your skepticism, Doctor McGee, but I only need the unit for a little while. And I promise that the underlying research will never be used again."

Tina felt herself wavering. "Why don't you tell me why you need it?"

"To save the life of someone very dear to me. To help save a world."

Tina grew cold. "We are in danger?"

The Flash didn't answer right away. "You are a scientist. Knowledge is currency to you. If I gave you the whole truth about everything that's happened in the last two years and even before, would you agree to lend me the tachyonic field emitter?"

"Everything? That encompasses quite a lot."

The Flash played a card she hadn't expected. "Everything about Harrison Wells. What really happened to him the night Tess Morgan was killed, what happened to him when the particle accelerator blew, what happened when the singularity opened up over Central City. I'll even tell you about the man who stole your pulse rifle, and the threat to a world you'll never see."

Tina always considered herself a decent poker player, but right now she was certain that every possible emotion was visible on her face.

"And if I don't help you? If I don't 'lend' my research to you, someone will die?"

"Yes, and possibly a world very much like this one."

Tina had to bargain, or at least try. "I want to see your face. I want to look you in the eye and know I can trust you."

To her shock, the Flash nodded. "If you can promise never to tell anyone else. It's not just my life that would be compromised."

Tina then realized that this man probably had a whole support team behind him. People who he trusted without reservation, people who depended on him. He probably had a family, too. "Yes, you have my word."

"Thank you." The Flash reached up and pulled the cowl and mask back, his eyes never leaving hers. The face behind the mask shocked her. He looked impossibly young, and without the mask and cowl, incredibly fragile. Too fragile to bear the burden of he must be carrying.

"I know you. You're that young man from the police who blackmailed me into giving up the first version of my research. Barry Allen, right?" Tina shook her head. "You were friends with Harrison. Your foster father – that detective – he asked me a lot of questions about Harrison. A few weeks later, I heard that he'd died in the singularity and six months after that, the news came out that he'd posthumously confessed to a murder."

"Yes, my mother's murder." The Flash took a deep breath and began his story. "The man you knew as Harrison Wells, the man who survived the crash that killed his wife, and the man who built S.T.A.R. Labs, the man whose face is on that biography on your bookshelf," The Flash gestured across the room, where her old friend's life story still had a place of honor, "That man was not Harrison Wells. The real Harrison Wells died the same night as his wife."

For an hour, Tina listened to the most incredible tale – one of body snatching, time travel, murder and revenge. "I should be more skeptical, I should be challenging everything you've told me. If I'd read this in a novel, I'd have tossed the book across the room because it's too ridiculous for words."

The Flash gave her a sad smile. "I know. It's like the worst comic book movie ever."

"But with everything I know, with how I saw Harrison change from such a sweet and caring man to a cold, ego- and progress-obsessed bastard after the accident, how S.T.A.R. Labs always seemed to have access to technologies that were far too advanced, your story makes terrible and perfect sense." She shook her head. "And you, poor boy, to have looked up to this imposter, to have trusted him, only to learn that he was responsible for such terrible crimes again your family."

The Flash didn't say anything, but the expression on his face spoke volumes. 

"But I still don't know why you need my tachyonic field emitter."

"That's the second part of the story, and one that I need to tell you at S.T.A.R. Labs."

Tina realized what the Flash was doing. "Holding back the rest of payment until the deal's done?"

"Something like that."

"I'll make a deal with you. I'll bring the device with me, we'll go to S.T.A.R. Labs for the rest of the story, and then I'll decide." She realized that she wasn't putting herself in the best position, but she trusted that this young hero wouldn't harm her.

The Flash smiled as if he knew just what she was thinking.

"Come with me." Tina got up and went to the far corner of her office and removed a small photo from the wall. It hid a biometric scanner and touchpad that gave her access to a private elevator. She took Barry to a floor that only appeared on the first set of blueprints filed with the city, to a floor that housed her company's most important and secret work. 

"I trust, this time, you'll keep what you see to yourself."

"I am sorry about that. It was wrong of me to blackmail you. The fake Wells had me so twisted around. And like I told you, I'd seen the 'man in yellow' the night my mother was murdered, so I was desperate for more information."

Tina sighed. "It over. No point in shredding ourselves over past mistakes." She stopped at a sealed-off lab and pressed her palm on the access plate. The door opened and she gestured for him to follow. "This is what you need."

The Flash examined the apparatus. "It looks similar to the one I destroyed last year, but a little more advanced."

"It is – no point in rebuilding it if it's not going to be improved." She detached the emitter module and put it into a small case she'd taken from a shelf. "Once we get back to my office, I'll call my driver and we'll meet you at S.T.A.R. Labs."

"How would you like to go for a ride, Doctor McGee?"

"You mean…"

"Yup." When he grinned, the Flash looked even younger – like a giddy teenager. "I won't drop you, promise."

Tina didn't even need a second to consider the offer. "What's the expression, 'hell yeah'?"

The Flash chuckled. 

"But I need to tell my security team where I'm going, and I need to let my wife know I won't be home anytime soon. We'll have to go back to my office – this floor is blocked from all types of radio signals – so no wi-fi or cellphone usage."

"Not a problem."

They went back to her office, but Tina did not allow the Flash to carry the case – although she suspected he was offering simply out of courtesy and not any intent to steal her technology. She called Jerri and let her know she'd be very late. And because she wasn't some too-stupid-to-live heroine in a genre novel, she told her security team where she was going, and she was going without them. 

"So, what now – we go down to the first floor?"

"Nope, not necessary. You may want your coat, though."

Buttoned up and case in hand, she watched the Flash put his cowl and mask back into place and the next thing she knew, she was in the control center at S.T.A.R. Labs.

"Hope you enjoyed the trip, Doctor McGee."

"I'm not sure if I did or not. It wasn't long enough to tell." She looked around the room, finding at least one familiar face. "Doctor Snow, Caitlin."

The young woman came over to her, smiling and Tina did something she'd never thought she'd do. She pulled the young woman into a tight hug. "I could never understand why you quit my lab to come back here, it didn't make sense. But of course, now I understand."

Caitlin nodded. "I loved working for you, but I'm part of this team, they need me." 

"And you need them, too. That's perfectly clear."

She was reintroduced to Detective West and to a young man, Cisco Ramon, whom she might have met once before.

"You're lending us your tachyonic field emitter?" Ramon made to take the case from her.

"I am not sure yet. I've only gotten half of the story." She looked over at the Flash, who had – in probably a nanosecond – changed into his street clothes. Tina absently wondered if it was possible to retain any modesty when you were moving too fast for people to see. "Will you tell me the rest, now? The part about the man who stole my pulse rifle, the man who looked like Harrison Wells. And about a world in danger."

The Flash, or Barry, as she thought of him now that he was out of that suit, nodded. "First I want to introduce you to one more person. He moved to stand behind a young woman, barely more a girl, who was staring at her with an almost burning intensity.

"This is Jesse. Her father is Harrison Wells. He broke into your lab and stole your pulse rifle four months ago, but he wasn’t the man you knew, he wasn’t the man who built this place, and certainly was not the man who murdered my mother. When the singularity closed, it left behind breaches to a parallel world – another Earth, where Jesse's from. On Jesse's Earth, her father also built a S.T.A.R. Labs, it also had an accident with its particle accelerator, and that accident also created meta-humans. Including a monster named Zoom."

"That was the thing that almost killed you, right? That creature that dragged you around the city like an animal carcass?" She'd seen the news footage and it had terrified her.

"Yes. He'd also kidnapped Jesse and held her prisoner for four months. Her father came through one of those breaches and asked us to help rescue her. We did, yesterday, but as we were trying to get to safety, her father was captured by Zoom and the portal between our worlds was prematurely closed. We need the tachyonic field emitter to reopen it. If we don't, Jesse's father – someone we've all grown quite close to – will die. And Zoom will destroy Jesse's world.

Tina knew Barry was glossing over the details, but they were – at least for the moment – irrelevant. She always wondered what it would be like to hold someone's fate in her hands. To be that intimately responsible for someone's survival.

"Please, Doctor McGee. Will you help us?"

She looked around the room meeting everyone's hopeful gaze. The idea of walking away with her technology was morally repulsive; she believed that there was no greater purpose than saving a life. "Of course I will."

She looked at the girl, this other Harrison's daughter. "I can see a bit of your father in your eyes, child." It was true and seemed like a nice thing to say.

And in reward, she was given the shock of her life. The girl hugged her tightly and sobbed, "Mom."


	10. Chapter 10

**One Month Ago**

Harry was tired. 

It was a soul-deep exhaustion, the kind he hadn't experienced in a very long time. An exhaustion caused by too many months of living on the knife-edge of adrenaline and it was making him stupid, making him question his judgment and every decision he'd made since arriving in this alternate universe.

He made a deal with Zoom; steal Barry's speed and in exchange, he'd get his child back. He knew that was a fool's bargain at best. Zoom could not, should not be trusted, and Harry knew that when he gave the monster what he asked for, he'd probably kill them both.

But if there was the slightest chance that he could save his daughter, he would do whatever he had to, even if it meant betraying someone he'd grown to respect, admire – and unfortunately, love.

Was there anything more ridiculous?

Loving Cisco Ramon. _That_ was ridiculous. The young man went out of his way to drive him crazy. Interrupting him, challenging him, deliberately doing everything possible to make things difficult. Except when he was being so casually, breathtakingly brilliant.

Cisco was like an uncut diamond; still functional, but needing refinement to display his true brilliance.

And last night, he almost lost him – to a paradox. To someone who didn't yet exist.

Even though he was alone, without an audience to chide him, Harry capped the marker he was using and threw it across the room. The eraser followed quickly after that. A variety of small desk items flew across the room as he let his temper and his anguish and his self-disgust have free reign.

"You done?"

Barry stood in the doorway, arms crossed, a vaguely amused expression on his face. Harry found a rubber band ball and threw that, too – right at Barry's face. Of course, the boy dodged and caught the damn thing on the rebound.

"Clearly not."

"What the fuck do you want?"

Barry put the ball on the desk, sped around the room, picked up the remnants of his temper tantrum, and sat down, propping his feet up on the desk. "Wanted to make sure you're all right."

"I'm fine."

That earned him a cool look and a raised eyebrow. "Cisco sends his greetings, by the way."

"He's home?"

"Yeah. He's at his parents' place. They are looking after him – some family bonding time." From the sour note in Barry's voice, Harry got the feeling he didn't approve.

"You don't like them?"

"Not really. Cisco's folks don't appreciate him. But they're his family and when Cisco mentioned that he'd been sick, they insisted on taking care of him. I expect that will last less than a day before he storms out in disgust."

"Ah." That might explain some of the boy's issues.

Barry changed the subject. "Want to get out of here for a little while? Get some fresh air."

Harry looked at his watch, it was a bit after eleven, still too early to give up. He growled, because that was the only tone he could muster right now. "Maybe some other time, Allen, maybe when I'm not wearing the face of a sociopathic murderer. Or maybe when my child isn't being held hostage by a monster." 

"Okay." Barry dropped his feet to the floor and stood up. "I'm bunking here for the night."

"And you think that information is pertinent?" Harry turned back to the board, horrified that Barry was willing to bring up what they did together in the small, dark hours of the morning.

Barry didn't say anything for a few seconds, "You've been good about trying to give us what we need, and you've been pretty clear why. Maybe you should think about what you need. You're part of us, Harry Wells. You don't want to admit it, but you are. And if you crack, we will all fall apart." 

At that, Barry left. It felt like the lights had dimmed, that the air had grown thin and harsh. He was chilled.

But he managed to work – or pretend to work – for another two hours. He was no closer to figuring out how to stop Zoom, how to find him, how to get his daughter back. His only alternative was to steal Barry's speed. If he was the least bit wise, he'd leave now. Go back to his Earth and fight until he died. Zoom wasn't going to give Jesse back, all of this was pointless. He was lost. Utterly lost and there was no future that didn't spell death and destruction.

Even when he was in the Army, and had been captured and taken to that filthy brothel, he always knew that he'd survive. That whatever they did to his body would never touch his soul. He'd needed three months to plan his escape and dying was never part of that equation. He'd been here for four months and it seemed that death and failure were the inevitable result of this equation.

He didn't leave, though. He couldn't. He called himself a coward and a fraud and a fool to depend upon these _children_ , but they were his best hope. His only hope.

Almost against his will, Harry went down to that small room off of the Pipeline, that unlikely love nest, and found Barry in bed, reading a novel.

"You don't speed read?"

"Not when I want to enjoy something." He folded over the page, put the book down and sat up. The covers fell away, revealing a lean, well-defined torso. "You look like crap."

"Thanks. You don't look so good yourself." He'd noticed the signs of sleeplessness on Barry's face over the last few weeks. He'd attributed that to late nights with the girlfriend – the one who'd shot him. But the girlfriend was gone and Barry hadn't seemed too brokenhearted. 

He stared at Barry, who stared back, wordlessly challenging him. 

"Before, you asked me what I needed."

Barry nodded. "And what do you need?"

_Your speed_ was on the tip of his tongue, followed by _my daughter back_ and then, _to never see this place again_. But he said, his voice hoarse with all of the unspoken emotions from the past few days, was simply "A good night's sleep."

Barry flipped back the covers in silent invitation. Harry stripped to the skin, uncomfortably aware of the slightly sour stink of his body, the perfume of anxiety and desperation. He felt like he should apologize for it, but didn't and joined Barry under the sheets. At some point in the last few months, the narrow field cot that he first encountered in this room had been replaced with something slightly more spacious, a real bed with a mattress wide enough for two grown men to sleep, if they didn't mind the lack of personal space.

He didn't. He could never outright say he _needed_ the physical closeness, but he did. Sometimes so badly, he ached. 

Harry managed to make himself comfortable. Cisco was smaller, his chest a softer pillow. But Cisco wasn't all that fond of being Harry's pillow – he preferred the little spoon position, which wasn't a problem. The boy was warm and generally a restful sleeper.

Barry was all bones and lean muscle, but he didn't mind when Harry rested his head on him. Their breathing synced easily. 

"Do you want to sleep, or would you mind if I read for a little while longer?"

"What's the book?"

Barry handed it to him. 

_I, Claudius_. This wasn't one he was familiar with on his Earth. Harry turned the book over and read the back cover, it seemed interesting. "Is it any good?"

"Yeah. Iris recommended it. Not something I'd usually read, but – "

"You prefer autobiographies of rock star scientists, right?" Harry couldn't help himself.

"Actually, that was a biography."

"Huh?"

"You really don't know the difference between autobiography and biography, do you? Thawne didn't write it himself, hence, it's a biography."

"Are you sure about that? The man has an incredible ego."

"True." Barry chuckled and Harry enjoyed the feel of the laughter against his skin. 

He commanded, "Read to me."

Barry side-eye'd him and smiled. "I'm not starting from the beginning, you know."

"That's fine. Just read."

"Okay…" Barry took the book back, opened it to the page he'd dog-eared, and started to read:

_"Soldiers really are an extraordinary race of men, as tough as shield-leather, as superstitious as Egyptians and as sentimental as Sabine grandmothers. Ten minutes later there were about two thousand men besieging Germanicus' tent in a drunken ecstasy of sorrow and repentance and imploring him to let his lady come back with their darling boy."_

Despite his interest in the story, Harry felt himself dozing off, the sound of Barry's voice was soothing, restful. At some point, while caught in the interstitial zone between sleep and consciousness, Barry stopped reading, turned the light off, and cradled him in his arms.

He might have slept through the night, except that Barry woke up, screaming. Or maybe he was the one who woke up screaming. He could hear Zoom's voice, that horrible sibilance, hissing demands and threats at him. If Barry wasn't next to him, Harry would think that the speed monster had made its way back into S.T.A.R. Labs and was taunting him.

The light came on and Harry blinked, his eyes burning against the brightness. He looked at Barry, his face tearstained, wrecked, desperate. An expression he knew too well. "Zoom?"

Barry nodded and wiped his face. "He had you, he had Joe and Iris, Cisco, Caitlin – everyone I love. Just like you told me. He's going to kill them all." 

_Welcome to my world. My living hell._

But apparently, this wasn't the first nightmare Barry had. "This is one of the reasons why Patty dumped me – because I'd wake up screaming and wouldn't tell her why." He laughed and the sound cut into Harry like glass. "It was bad enough when my brain was just tormenting me about her, but you were right – he'll take everyone I care about. Everyone I love."

Harry could hear the doubt and the self-defeat, _And I can't stop him because I'm not fast enough, not strong enough, not smart enough, not brave enough to do this._ But in the space between his heartbeats, Harry realized what Barry also said. "You love me?"

Barry looked at him like he doubted his sanity. "Of course I do. You think I'd be here otherwise?"

"I – I don't…" He couldn't tell him the truth, as much as he wanted to. Not with so much else at stake. 

Barry misinterpreted his hesitation, just as Harry hoped he would. The boy shook his head. "It doesn't matter."

"It does. And I'm sorry." Harry hated the lie.

"Don't be. You give me what I need. You've given Cisco what he needs. And you let us give you what you need. That's all we can ask for." Barry sighed. "I just wish I could do more, that I was faster, that Jesse was safe and home and …"

"Shh, stop it." Harry tried to hush those gremlins of uncertainty. In here, between the two of them, he could forget about the devil's bargain he'd made, he could believe that this boy _was_ strong enough and fast enough to take on Zoom. "We'll get her back, you've promised me that, and if there is one thing I've learned is that you keep your promises."

Barry closed his eyes and Harry could see his self-esteem crumbling, shattered by doubt and exhaustion. He pressed a kiss against Barry's jaw and whispered, "You give me hope; you make me believe that anything's possible." That wasn't a lie. No, it was the purest possible truth – in this room or out in the wider world. But he couldn't trust that hope, not when Jesse was still a heartbeat from death.

"Harry." Barry cupped his head. "Don't try to prop me up with lies."

"No, not lies." He kept kissing Barry, worshiping skin and muscle, "You need to believe in yourself. Let me give that to you."

"I don't think that's something you can give me, Harry."

He looked up and Barry's face was full of shadows. "You don't trust me?"

Barry didn't answer.

"You still look at me and see the imposter."

"Sometimes, yes. I can't help it. He _made_ me for the sole purpose of destroying me. Sometimes I look at you and I can't forget that. Don't ask for the impossible."

"And yet you love me?" He put just the slightest emphasis on the last word.

"Yeah, you. Charmless, angry, short-tempered, easily frustrated, desperate, generous you."

Harry let out the breath he was holding. "What a fucking mess." _You don't trust me and I'm going to betray you._

"That's a good way to put it." Barry smiled, just a slight quirk of his lips. "And yet, you're here, I'm here, it's three hours until dawn and we're both stinking from nightmare sweat."

"True." 

"We could stink of sex instead, you know." Barry stared at him through half-lidded eyes.

"I thought we were going there, you know – with me kissing you."

"Yeah. Got distracted."

"That's your problem, Allen – you get distracted too easily. You need to focus on what's important."

He felt Barry's chuckle as he worked his way down that lean, smooth torso, alternating kisses with love bites, holding Barry down as he writhed in pleasure and pain. 

"Don't move." He pressed Barry into the mattress and licked a wet stripe between his navel and his pubes. When Barry rocked back, he reiterated the command, "I said, 'don't move'." 

"But I want to move." Barry writhed against him. 

He briefly swallowed the tip of Barry's cock, then let it pop out of his mouth, and ordered, "If you move, I'll stop."

"You're a bastard, Harry Wells."

"My father would likely agree with that sentiment." His mouth took possession of Barry's cock again and this time, Barry didn't move. He could feel the boy quivering, all of his speedster instincts commanding him to move. He loved the feel of Barry's cock in his mouth, the latent power that he controlled, if just for the moment. He knew Barry could come and be ready again in a matter of heartbeats, but that wasn't what he wanted.

He let go, just for a moment. "Can you control yourself tonight?"

"What do you mean?"

"Don't come until I tell you to. No speedster tricks, Barry. Just you and me and my mouth. Can you do that for me?"

"Why?" He could hear Barry's thought processes. Edging was pointless when you could come a half-dozen times or more a night.

"Because I'm telling you to." _Because you need me to take control. Because I need you to let me control you._ "Remember what I said about distractions?"

Barry sniffed. "Yes, that I get distracted too easily."

"You need to learn how to focus, to find your target and stay locked on it, no matter what. Distractions will get you and your team killed. You can't keep going off mission, no matter how noble or worthy you think your cause is."

Barry raised himself up on one elbow and looked down at him. "You sound like you're speaking from experience."

Harry nodded, rubbing his cheek against Barry's cock. "I've lived a life, trust me in this."

Barry looked like he was about to challenge him, or at least seek a less cryptic explanation. But he didn't say anything else and Harry felt he was being assessed and found wanting. Then Barry broke his silence. "In this, right now, I trust you. I'll try to do as you've asked."

"Don't try, Barry. Do. You can do this." 

Harry bent back to his task and thought how silly this seemed. And how deadly serious he was.

He held Barry at the edge of orgasm for an hour, maybe more, until they were both shaking, drenched in sweat. Barry had gripped the mattress so hard that he'd torn through the sheets. Harry thought his jaw and throat would never recover, but the ache was well worth it. He held Barry flat against the cot and climbed his body until they were joined from shoulder to torso to groin. His own cock felt like iron as he rubbed against Barry, he face buried in Barry's neck, his hands threaded through Barry's sweat-soaked hair. They rutted against each other and finally, Harry gave the command, "Come for me, Barry, come now."

And he did, the splash of hot semen against his already overheated skin was a goad for his own long-delayed orgasm.

He came to this room, wanting only a good night's sleep, but what he received was incalculably more valuable.


	11. Chapter 11

**Now, The First Night After Returning to Earth-1**

Jesse pulled away from the woman who was her late mother's doppelganger. "I'm sorry. Of course you're not my mother." She wiped her face, trying to erase the tears. "She's been dead for ten years, anyway."

Dr. McGee frowned a little. "I'm so sorry."

"Not your fault." Jesse let out a small sigh. "It's just been a rough few months."

"That seems to be a bit of an understatement."

Jesse cringed a little at the politely sympathetic tone in the woman's voice. "Thank you for helping us, helping me. Zoom has my dad and we have to go back and rescue him."

"Of course, child. Although it is strange to know that your father and I were married in another world. I was good friends with the man who had been your father's doppelganger, he was a lovely human being."

"He was killed by Eobard Thawne. The man you knew was an imposter." Jesse felt compelled to state.

"I'm talking from a long time ago. Back when we were young and just getting a start in life. I didn't particularly like the man he became, and in a way, I'm glad to know that he wasn't the same person."

Jesse nodded, and turned to Barry. "What now?"

"Now we roll up our sleeves and get to work." Barry pulled something out of his pocket. "This is the module from the suit. I had Gideon record my conversation with the Reverse-Flash."

Jesse felt Dr. McGee startle behind her.

"Mr. Allen? Is there something you haven't told me?"

"There are a lot of things I haven't told you, but you're a very smart woman and can fill in the blanks." 

Barry then looked at her. "The man you're going to see here is only very superficially like your dad. If you don't want to watch, that's okay."

"No, I need to. If I'm part this team – "

Everyone nodded.

"Then I can't _not_ watch."

Barry smiled. "Okay, here goes."

Barry was right; it was disturbing to see the imposter. But she could easily pick out the differences. The voice was smoother, the smile chillingly different, and even in the low lighting, this man's eyes were colder, harder, more avaricious than she'd ever seen on her father, even when he was being a bad-ass CEO. 

The imposter was smart, though. Once past his shock and attempts to get closer to his own supposed doppelganger, he was eager to offer the information they needed. From the corner of her eye, she saw Cisco taking notes, and so was Dr. McGee. When it became clear that the conversation between the imposter and Barry masquerading as the Reverse-Flash was almost over, Barry stopped the playback.

Jesse wondered what Barry didn't want her to see.

"You okay?"

"Yeah – and it was weird and creepy, but that guy wasn't my dad and I would never, _ever_ confuse them. He's smart, but evil reeks off of him. He even speaks differently – weird pauses and phrasing." She turned to look at Cisco and Caitlin. "How did you not see that?"

Caitlin answered, "He was different when he was here – he was, especially after the particle accelerator accident, a very kind and compassionate and caring man."

Jesse shrugged. She couldn't bring herself to care about the imposter. "So, now we go reopen the breach?"

Cisco picked up the vibing goggles he'd shown her. "I just need to make some adjustm – "

He was interrupted by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Barry's body. 

Everyone rushed forward, but Caitlin pushed them out of the way. "Barry? Barry? What wrong?"

Barry pushed himself into a seated position. "Sorry – I just crashed."

"Yeah, literally." Caitlin was checking his pulse. "Come on, let's get you up and into the med bay. When was the last time you ate? And if you say breakfast, I'm going to be very angry."

"Okay, I won't say 'breakfast'."

"But it was, wasn't it? You know you can't abuse your body like that. You've been running everywhere – you just went back in time and forward again. You're going to kill yourself. And what about sleep?"

Jesse watched as Cisco shove what looked like a food brick into Barry's hands and Caitlin hooked him up to an IV drip. Detective West tried to keep him from leaving the med bay, but Barry protested, "Joe – this isn't the time for coddling. There are lives at stake, remember?"

"And yours is one of them."

"I can work with this attached. Lying on a gurney isn't productive." Barry was chewing on the brick with a distinct lack of enthusiasm.

"It is if you're going to keep falling over."

"Which I'm not."

Detective West finally gave in and Barry went to join Cisco and Dr. McGee. Jesse wasn't sure how to make herself useful and just hovered.

Caitlin noticed and pulled her to a less crowded part of the room. "Are you all right?"

She stuck her hands in her pockets and shrugged. "I guess. You're all so protective of each other."

"We've all been through a lot together. And Barry _should_ know better." Caitlin looked up, fetched a couple of bags from the med bay and changed the IV. "He'll suck that one dry in about five minutes."

Jesse nodded and a wave of exhaustion hit her. She yawned until her jaw started to protest.

"Maybe you should get some rest, too." Caitlin rubbed her arm. 

"I don't know …" She didn't want to go back to that empty room with its minute remnants of her father's life here.

"Why not stretch out in the med bay? You'll be close to the action."

"Okay." She let Caitlin take her into the small room and help her onto the gurney. She could hear Barry and Cisco gently arguing with Dr. McGee about phase changes. A part of her wanted to be back out there, helping. But as Caitlin covered her with a blanket and dimmed the lighted, Jesse couldn't find the strength to do anything more than close her eyes and surrender to sleep.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Nothing was making sense. He heard Dr. McGee's words, he ran through the math, he checked his notes and even had Barry play back parts of his conversation with the Reverse-Flash, but nothing was clicking.

"Cisco? Cisco?" Barry nudged at him.

"Sorry, what were you saying?"

His friend looked at him with a worried expression on his face. At least he thought the expression was worried, because his eyes couldn't seem to focus.

"I'm not the only one crashing."

"When did you last sleep, Mr. Ramon?" That was from Dr. McGee.

"A few hours after we got back last night."

"And before that?"

He shrugged, not willing to say that he'd gotten about three hours in the bed he'd shared with Harry and Barry. 

Barry – the traitor – volunteered, "We haven't had more than a few hours in about a week, I think. I didn't sleep on Earth-2, well except for the few hours I was unconscious after Reverb and Zoom had a go at me. Can't really call that sleep, though."

Dr. McGee frowned. "How are you even functioning? You need to get some rest."

Cisco couldn't disagree more. "Not until we get Harry back." He didn't want to sleep, too afraid that the vision he'd had this morning would revisit him in his nightmares. He kept his voice low, so not to wake Jesse. "Zoom has Harry, he's not going to keep him alive for much longer. We can't delay this even a minute." He looked to Barry, who nodded.

Dr. McGee asked the question he didn't want to answer. "Mr. Ramon, what aren't you telling us?"

Barry, thankfully, answered for him. "We don't have time. Zoom's not just _holding_ Harry." 

Dr. McGee understood without needing further information. "I see." But she didn't let go. "How about this, I'll continue to work the equations and you two get a few hours of sleep. I'm relatively fresh."

Barry looked at him and slowly nodded.

"Okay – we have some bunk space in one of the lower levels." Cisco didn't know why he felt compelled to offer that information. "But just for a few hours."

Caitlin put her foot down. "You need at least four hours minimum, both of you." She removed the IV from Barry's hand, and added, "going without REM sleep for this long is dangerous. It affects your judgment."

"And since when has our judgment ever been good?" Cisco snarked back. "Look at us? On a good day, we're helping this guy – " He pointed at Barry, "run around saving people and keeping him from getting himself killed. On bad days, we're doing our best not to get ourselves killed or lose our minds or keep this city from getting destroyed. We live on the edge of chaos and destruction and betrayal and everyone we love is at risk of a terrible and painful death." He knew he was getting hysterical but couldn't stop himself. 

"Cisco, take it easy." Barry rubbed his arm.

"No, don't. Just … don't." He pulled away. "We drag innocents in – " He pointed to Tina McGee and to Joe, "and we don't give a shit about collateral damage. People keep dying on us, Barry. We fuck everything up and we can't save anyone." He sobbed and to his utter shame, burst into noisy, messy tears. 

Barry wrapped his arms around him and he barely felt the whooshing as he was nyoomed down to _their_ room. Barry held him as he cried and ranted, all the horror of the past few days pouring out of him. Meeting his evil doppelganger and practically a heartbeat later, seeing him die like he'd died in the alternate timeline, losing Harry and then vibing his rape and torture, and even seeing the Reverse-Flash again. 

Pain on top of pain on top of pain.

He cried into Barry's shoulder, barely feeling the hand stroking his back, the light murmur of soothing words, the press of lips against his temple. A some point, sanity returned and Cisco felt a deep flood of embarrassment. He tried to pull away, but Barry wouldn't let him. He sniffled and muttered "Sorry."

"For what?"

"For this, for – you know. Breaking down. Being weak."

"You're not weak, Cisco. Not at all." Barry let him go, but only allowed him to retreat an arm's length. "How many times have I broken down? How many times have you propped me up?"

Cisco swallowed and ducked his head.

"I can't even imagine how you've held up the past day."

"Had no choice. Shouldn't have broken down now. Can just imagine what Harry would say if he saw me."

Barry kissed his forehead. "When will you remember that you're human?"

"Meta-human, you mean." he corrected with a watery chuckle.

"Right." Barry sighed and shifted a little, so Cisco was leaning on his shoulder. "After the Reverse-Flash returned and you nearly died and you were with your folks, Harry was breaking apart, too."

"Really?" That surprised him. He still had a hard time believing that Harry didn't see him as anything more than a necessary annoyance.

"Yeah, really. He was throwing things around your workroom like you wouldn't believe. Nearly beaned me with your rubber band ball."

"That's not possible. You move to fast."

"Well, not even close, but he tried. I caught it."

Cisco swallowed, struck by another tide of pain and grief. "Why are telling me this?"

"Because you need to know. You need to know that it's not just one-sided. He loves us, he's afraid to admit it, but he does. He's probably going to be really pissed at us for rescuing him, too."

"I don't care." Cisco had to agree, Harry would probably be extremely pissed.

"Neither do I. We'll get him home and give him all the erasers and markers in the place to throw at us."

"Yeah. And make him pick everything up afterwards." Cisco couldn't stop the yawn the consumed the next thought in his head. "I think Caitlin and Doctor McGee are right. I need to sleep for a bit."

"Me, too."

"Stay here?"

"Of course, why wouldn't I?"

"Because – " Cisco bit his lip, "Joe's here. He might come looking for us?"

"Don't care." Barry got up, pulled off his jacket and shoes. "You're my best friend. You need me."

Cisco yawned again and muttered, "Thought Iris was your best friend."

"Don't split hairs. And you think I haven't slept in the same bed as Iris?"

"Well, not since puberty hit, right?"

"Yeah, but still. You need me, there's nothing to worry about." Barry got him horizontal, and then under the covers. "I'll be back in a sec. Just want to let everyone know you're okay and then we'll crash for a couple of hours."

"Okay." He tried to keep his eyes open, afraid of what he'd see when he closed them, but he lost the battle. And to his surprise, he saw Harry at the notation board, scribbling and shaking his marker and ignoring him. He saw Harry throwing things around the room, just like Barry described. His brain was like a collection of GIFs, giving him brief images of the man who drove him crazy, nothing terrible, nothing frightening. Nothing he couldn't handle.

True to his word, Barry was back and the light went off. It was almost perfectly dark, but he wasn't afraid. Barry was warm against his back and he believed – in this moment – that they would bring Harry home and everything would be all right.


	12. Chapter 12

Harry was frantic, worrying what Garrick was doing to everyone he loved on Earth-1. Garrick wasn't trapped there. He'd figured out a way to move between dimensions without the breach, to even be in two places at once. To be the monstrous Zoom and the heroic Crimson Comet at the same time. Or maybe not? Could Zoom be a later incarnation of Garrick, a time-shifted alternate? 

Harry kept yanking on the chain, trying to find some leverage, trying to squeeze his hand through the manacle. But it was too tight, even if he'd managed to dislocate his thumb. He was as trapped as the man in the mask. 

The hours passed and he wondered where the monster was. The daylight was long gone and from the small window in his cell, he could no longer track the moon. By his estimation, he'd been here for close to twenty hours. 

When they'd rescued Jesse and gotten back to S.T.A.R. Labs, just before Barry took Cisco and his daughter through the portal, he'd put his watch on her. Maybe out of premonition, but he was glad he did. He knew she'd be horrified by some of the entries, particularly his confession to the murder of Russell Glossen. He just hoped she wouldn't hate him too badly for his crimes.

The man in the mask was tapping again. 

Harry really didn't want to continue the conversation; he knew who Zoom was, although he hadn't quite solved the paradox of his presence on both Earths at the same time.

The man in the mask tapped out, _r u ok_.

He responded, _im alive_. He then added, _J garik is zom_. No need to waste letters.

The man in the mask replied, _I no_.

_Y r u hre_.

_Zom taks my sped he rips it frm me_.

_How_. Zoom had needed him to extract Barry's speed, but he was able to take it from this speedster without him?

The masked man repeated, _Rips it frm me u saw_

Yes, he had – after the first time Zoom had raped him, he'd gone into the masked man's cell and grabbed him. The monster had been wreathed in blue lightning and had seemed to grow – much as he had when Harry had given him that small bit of Barry's speed. But it didn't make sense – if Zoom could take the speed from this speedster by physical contact, why didn't he do the same for Barry?

The man in the mask went silent and Harry didn't know if he should be grateful or not. In the silence, he couldn't stop worrying where Zoom was, what horrors he was inflicting on the world. He didn't know if he'd survive another round, but if Zoom was here, then at least he wasn't attacking Jesse or Barry or Cisco. He could feel his body failing, the blood seeping out. He shivered and wondered if this was a sign of shock, or a simple reaction to the falling temperature. 

Floating in a haze of pain and misery, Harry pieced together everything that he'd missed before Zoom unwittingly revealed his identity. Hindsight was always perfectly in focus, and as long as he could believe that Garrick could be in two places at once, he could clearly see how Garrick was Zoom. After all, he knew the truth about Garrick, that he wasn't the pure-hearted hero that he pretended to be and the truth was, Jay Garrick was a vicious bully, a dealer in pain and destruction. 

Yet, from the very moment he'd laid eyes on Garrick on that alternate Earth, he knew that Garrick held the upper hand with Barry and Cisco and Caitlin. He wasn't the one wearing the face of a murderer, the face and name of a man who'd done his best to destroy the very people he desperately needed to save his daughter's life.

Jay had come out swinging, and the poison he'd fed to Caitlin about him spread easily, infecting everyone with mistrust. Of course, he hadn't helped – keeping his own motives secret until they were so painfully exposed. 

But he should have seen through Garrick, he should have seen the real evil. The conversation they'd had on that first night after everyone else had left, should have given him some hint that Garrick was playing a deeper, more dangerous game.

_"You seem to have convinced these children that you are as pure as the driven snow. But I know better."_

_"You might know better, but they think you're little better than a murdering psychopath." Garrick sneered. "Pity you can't do anything about that." He gestured at Harrison's face._

_"I could tell them what I know about you. That underneath that boy scout exterior, you're an avid sadist."_

_Garrick smirked. "That may be, but then you'd have to explain just how you know that. And given the level of trust they have for you, it wouldn't be hard to twist that around, make you the bad guy, since you are, you know, already the bad guy."_

_Harrison knew that, so he refocused, "What are you really doing here, Garrick?"_

_"I told you, Zoom stole my speed and I got sucked into the Singularity. This is where I landed."_

_Nothing Garrick said could be disproven, but it felt like a lie. "How?"_

_"How, what?"_

_"How did Zoom take your speed? Was he like a vampire, sucking you dry? Or did he use some mechanism?"_

_"Why? So you can replicate that effort?"_

_"Or maybe I could reverse it."_

_"No, Wells – I'm not giving you a chance to do any more damage to me."_

_Again, Harrison was struck by the wrongness in Garrick's words, or maybe it was the tone. The mocking certainty, the almost cavalier way he refused the offer of assistance. As if he knew that there was nothing that could be done. Not that Harrison really wanted to help this bastard, but if he could be a tool to get Jesse back, he'd do it._

_Garrick stepped deep into Harrison's physical space. "You look like a man who could use some help, a little relief from all the stress you've been under." Garrick cupped his genitals, squeezing none too gently. "You need someone to take you in hand. Must be difficult keeping all that rage and worry packed away, with your daughter's life on the line. A little pain can go a long way in relieving some of that stress."_

_Disgusted and shocked, Harrison stepped back. "How the hell do you know about Jesse?"_

_"Come on, why are YOU here? You really think I bought your story about crossing a dimension to recruit these children to stop Zoom. For two years you've denied any responsibility for the meta-humans and suddenly, for no reason, you've finally decided to own up to it? You are the most self-interested, self-obsessed man in Central City. You care about nothing except your lab and your daughter – that's pretty well known. From there, it was easy to figure out that Zoom is threatening your child, since you wouldn't leave S.T.A.R. Labs if that place was in danger."_

_"You shut your fucking mouth about my daughter. You know nothing."_

_"I'll keep quiet as long as you do. Do we have a bargain, Wells?"_

_Harrison reluctantly agreed. He needed Barry Allen; he couldn't afford to have Garrick twist him around even more. "You have my silence on your real character, but you don't interfere, either."_

_Garrick laughed. "You'll end up betraying yourself, Wells. They'll never trust you and I won't have to lift a finger."_

_He knew that. But he didn't need their trust, just their cooperation and assistance._

_Then the atmosphere in the room changed. Garrick sauntered over to him and Harrison stepped back, revolted by the other man's proximity._

_Garrick seemed to take a perverse pleasure in his reaction. "I know what motivates you. I know how easily your buttons are pushed, how you react when you're backed into a corner. Your desperation is really rather delicious." Garrick loomed over him, licking his lips. "I know you like to play rough at the clubs. You take as often as you give."_

_"As if I'd let you lay a finger on me. I've seen you at work, remember? I'd sooner take a vow of celibacy than have a go with you."_

_Garrick made a tsking noise. "Such vehemence. What's the expression, Wells? Methinks thou doth protest too much?"_

_"Stay away from me, stay away from Snow and Ramon and the Flash."_

_"Oh, you're so protective of people who hate you. But rest assured, I have no interest in playing any of those games right now. I'm here to stop Zoom, same as you. But afterwards, maybe we can figure something out." Garrick licked his finger and ran it across Harrison's cheek. Then he pretended to tip his helmet and laughed, leaving Harrison alone._

Of course Garrick had known about Jesse. He'd been the one to take her in the first place. It made Harry sick to think of every moment he'd spent in that bastard's company, having the knowledge, but never realizing it. How Garrick must have laughed.

But Harry had one advantage. In his arrogance, Zoom had given himself away.

Back on his own Earth, he and Garrick had frequented the same Old Town clubs, had moved in the same dark sexual circles. Garrick might have offered some "stress relief" that night, but Harry was not an aficionado of pain, either the giving or receiving. There was a distinction between sadomasochism and discipline, one that too many people failed to make. He was revolted by the former, but enjoyed and even required the latter. Yes, most of the time he was dominant, preferring to exercise control, but there were rare occasions where he needed to surrender, too.

There was one very special place, a nameless club far away from the slightly seedy sexual fray of Old Town, buried on a quiet residential street in Lawrence Hills, an elegant house of pleasure where real names were never used and faces were hidden by masks. A place to indulge in extreme behavior with others of like mind. 

He hadn't gone there often, maybe once or twice a year since his wife died, but six months after the particle accelerator had blown, a week after the Norris Commission had cleared S.T.A.R. Labs, and two days after the first meta-human had started wreaking havoc on Central City, Harrison needed relief. More than what Old Town could offer.

His usual Dom wasn't available and the proprietors had suggested he walk around and observe, recommending that he watch a new member, who called himself "Hunter Zolomon", at work. Harrison had thought it rather disgusting that this new member chose to use the name of a serial killer as his _nom d'amor_ , but once he saw the man at work, he realized it was all too fitting an appellation.

"Zolomon" wasn't a dominant, he was a sadist. That, in and of itself hadn't been Harrison's issue, it was how he'd treated the man shackled to the St. Andrew's Cross.

Watching him work a cat o'nine tails over the bound man had left him cold. Pain – either the giving or receiving – didn't move him. He would have walked away except that the man on the cross had safe-worded. And Zolomon, breaking all of the rules of this supposedly well-managed club, had kept whipping him, the blows coming faster and sounding harder than before.

The man on the cross had screamed his safe word again, and to Harrison's shock, none of the other observers had moved to intervene. The woman next to him shifted and muttered something that sounded like "Why isn't he stopping?" From the corner of his eye, Harrison had seen two people leave the room, but no one came in.

Zolomon had continued to thrash at the man on the cross, who kept screaming his safe word, and still no one stopped him. Harrison had known that interfering in a scene was bad form, but disregarding the underlying tenet of the power exchange was far worse and as Zolomon pulled his whip back, Harrison had grabbed his arm and forced it down. "The man safe-worded. Stop."

Zolomon had turned to him, and shocked, Harrison recognized the man behind the half-mask. It was Jay Garrick, someone he'd known from the scientific community in Central City, as well as the Old Town clubs. Garrick the scientist had barely been worth his notice, and Garrick the sadist never been anyone he would be interested in. 

But Garrick-as-Hunter Zolomon hadn't recognize him under his mask. He'd simply snarled, "I stop when I want, and not before." 

"You stop now."

Zolomon tried to break free, but Harrison had refused to let go, squeezing his wrist until the other man dropped the whip.

The lips beneath the mask had curled into a sneer and when Harrison let go, the man stepped away. He watched as Garrick left the room, but as he passed the man on the St. Andrew's Cross, he had stopped, yanked back the man's hair and bent over him. Harrison had rushed forward to intervene again, when he heard Garrick whisper, _"You are nothing and you will always be nothing."_

Lying on the floor of this cold and filthy cell, lost in memory, Harry could feel his life drawing to a close. He knew the risks, he'd been prepared for them. He'd even tried to make his boys promise not to rescue him, but now, knowing who Zoom was, knowing that that monster had free reign between their worlds, he raged to himself. Instead of protecting his daughter, keeping his boys safe, all he did was bring them into even greater peril.


	13. Chapter 13

It had been too many years since Tina had rolled up her sleeves and worked as a scientist, not an administrator or a businesswoman. Her days weren't spent in a lab, but in an office high above the fray. She knew what each and every department at Mercury was doing, she tracked the progress of every project and held every scientist on her staff accountable, but she didn't do any of the real work.

And she missed it.

Someone, maybe Joe West, maybe Caitlin, was keeping her coffee cup topped off. At some point, she was distracted by the scent of a burger which she vaguely remembered eating.

"Doctor McGee?"

Tina paused in her calculations. It was the girl – the other Harrison's daughter. She still couldn't process that she had existed on an alternate Earth and borne that man's child. But she looked up into the child's hopeful eyes. 

"I'm sorry to interrupt. Is there anything you need? Anything I can do for you?"

Tina shook her head. "Not unless you understand quantum flow mechanics."

"I was working on a lab project on wave-particle duality when Zoom grabbed me. Hadn't gotten very far into the second-stage modeling, but I'd completed a thesis statement on weird particle behavior." 

"Impressive. Feel like checking my math?"

The girl – Jesse – smiled brightly, like she'd just been given a prize. "Certainly." 

Tina stepped away from the monitor and let Jesse get to work. Joe West, who she'd thought was long gone, caught her eye and gave her an approving nod, before pulling his watch cap back down. Caitlin was sacked out in the medical bay, taking over the gurney that Jesse had used for a few hours.

She walked around the room, stretching her legs, taking note of the various bits of technology – and in particular, the Flash's suit. S.T.A.R. Labs might have been declared a disaster area, all but abandoned, but it was stunningly well equipped and in many ways, more advanced that her own facility.

"Doctor McGee?" Jesse called her attention to something on the monitor.

She was both delighted and a little embarrassed when the girl pointed out something she'd overlooked. They worked together through the rest of the formulas, refining they work she'd done overnight and then set the data to process.

"We make a good team."

Jesse flushed at the praise and Tina wondered if she was doing something terrible and dangerous. 

"Do you have any children?"

"No. My wife and I decided against that years ago. We're both too busy with our careers – it wouldn't be fair."

"Your wife?"

"Jerri. She's an attorney, a senior partner at one of the largest law firms here in Central City." Tina wondered if same-sex partnerships were common, or even legal on Jesse's version of Earth, and considering the level of sang-froid the girl displayed, they probably were. 

"Have you been together long?"

"We've been married for three years, but we've been together for almost twelve."

"Why did you wait so long?"

And that answered her unspoken question. "Because marriage equality wasn't the law until a few years ago."

"That seems … backwards."

Tina chuckled a little sadly. "There are many things that are backwards here."

Jesse checked the processing time for the simulation. "It's going to take a while – about two hours. Do you want anything?"

Tina yawned. "Maybe another gurney? I haven't burned the midnight oil like this in a very long time."

"I've got an extra cot in my room."

"Your room?"

"My dad has been living here for four months, it looks like he took over a small lab and fitted it out with a couple of cots. I wonder if he always thought we'd be coming back here." The girl sighed, and there was a sad, faraway look in her eyes. "I slept in my dad's bed last night, so there's a cot with clean sheets for you if you want."

"That would be lovely."

She went over to Joe West, who'd been playing possum. He whispered to her, "Go, I'll keep an eye on things here."

Tina followed Jesse to an elevator bank, and they ascended to the sixth floor, and she had to ask, "Is this anything like the S.T.A.R. Labs on your world?"

"It's almost identical, except that the one on mine is still a working lab. Dad had managed to keep the effects of the particle accelerator explosion a secret."

Jesse paused at a door and pushed it open. "It's not much, but it's going to be home for me for a while." The girl gestured at one of the cots. "You can sack out there, if you'd like."

Tina toed off her shoes with a grateful sigh and relaxed. Jesse, though, was looking for something.

"What's the matter?"

"Before we left my Earth, before Zoom took my dad, he put this on me." She held up what looked like a massive wrist watch. "It's something my dad invented – it senses meta-humans, but it's out of juice and I need to find the charger."

Tina watched Jesse and thought how much she reminded her of the Harrison Wells she'd once known, that gentle man with an unparalleled intellect, the friend who'd seemed to disappear under the weight of intolerable grief. By all logic, this girl shouldn't feel so similar, her father was not that man and she doubted that this other Harrison Wells was anything like him.

"Found it!" There was a tiny ping as Jesse connected the watch to the power source. "I wonder why he wanted me to have it."

"Maybe it has some custom features. If your father created it, it would seem logical that his own model would be special."

"Yeah, I hadn't considered that, but you're right. Dad would definitely do something like that." Jesse sat down on the other cot and turned off the light. "Thank you so much, Doctor McGee."

"For what, child?"

"For helping, for staying and working, for being … nice."

"How could I refuse?"

"Easily. You could have said it wasn't your problem. My dad stole from you, my dad's body-snatched doppelganger stole from you. You could have washed your hands of everything and told Barry that this wasn't your problem."

"I could have, and believe me, the thought crossed my mind. But I'm a scientist, and the problem is too intriguing to ignore."

"Ah, right." Jesse sounded disappointed at that explanation.

"And I'm also a human being, I could never let anyone suffer if I could prevent it. Had Harrison approached me and asked for my help to rescue you, I would have given it freely."

"Thank you, Doctor McGee. It means a lot to know that."

Tina frowned in the darkness, still wondering if she was making a huge mistake in forging an emotional connection with this girl. "Why don't you call me 'Aunt Tina'?"

"Thank you, I'd like that." 

Jesse sniffed and Tina wondered if the girl was crying. She never thought of herself as particularly maternal, but she was almost overwhelmed by the need to comfort the girl. "It'll be all right, I promise."

Jesse didn't say anything. They both knew that that vow was meaningless.


	14. Chapter 14

**The Night Before Going to Earth-2**

Harry paced in the containment cell, hoping against hope that Barry would let him go home, that he'd let him die in battle, instead of rotting forever in this cage while his child died in another.

Exhausted, heartsick, ashamed of himself, he waited for their judgment. These children – and Harry had to again forcibly remind himself that they had not been children for a long time – were carrying the fate of his world and the only person he loved in their hands.

_No. Not the only person, not anymore_

Even though there was no one to hear him, he laughed. Right here, on this world, there were two people he loved and a third he cared for deeply. And those three were making a decision that would lead to his certain death. 

Harry rested his head against the cool wall and closed his eyes. In the darkness, he could see Barry's face, and Cisco's too. He could read their shock and the grief and anger. In his eyes, he could read the self-loathing at falling into this new betrayal. Yes, he'd warned him that he'd betray him, that Jesse had to come first, but hours later, he'd climbed into bed with them – with _his boys_ – and slept in their arms.

How do you forgive a betrayal like that?

_By sending him to his death._

The outer door opened and Barry was there, Cisco and Caitlin and Joe West arrayed behind him. Then his cell door opened.

"Come on." Strange, but there was no heat in Barry's voice, none of the anger and accusation that he expected to hear.

As he exited, he touched the top of the doorframe – for luck, because he had nothing else to keep him going. Stepping into a dubious freedom, he looked at Barry, at the rest of the people he'd betrayed. He said the only thing he could say without breaking down, with all the bravado he could muster, "Well, I guess this is goodbye." He figured he'd be dead in about an hour from now. Zoom would come for him, take him to Jesse. He'd kill her and then rip him apart. And then his world would fall prey to this monster.

At least he'd die knowing that his boys were safe from Zoom, that the breaches were closed and the only dangers were ones from this world, ones he'd had no part in making.

But once again, Barry floored him. "No, it's not. I told you, we're a team. Now, you're a part of it. We're going to help you save Jesse. We're not sending you through alone. We're going to Earth-2. We're going with you."

His breath caught as hope burned through him, he tried to speak, tried to tell them no – to stay here, to stay safe – but he couldn't. He managed a harsh "Thank you" and pushed past Barry, back towards the Cortex. There was too much work to do before they could leave.

The team worked silently and Harry figured they were all still seething at his betrayal. Barry used his speed to build the housing for the breach-busting bombs, Caitlin and Joe did the quality checks, while he and Cisco took care of the delicate process of inserting the CFL quark matter into the ignition chamber.

Three hours later, there was a pile of five dozen bombs – one for each of the breaches and a few extras – waiting for Barry to deploy.

Harry scrubbed his face. He couldn't remember ever feeling this exhausted. Not even after the particle accelerator had exploded and he'd spent an endless string of sleepless days trying to clean up that mess.

Joe had left the room to take a call and came back with a smile on his face. "They're releasing Iris from the hospital. I'm going to go get her. But no one goes anywhere until I come back."

Harry could practically see the light shining from Barry at the news. "Tell Iris I'll be by in a few hours, okay?"

He did his best to hide his frown. They were on a clock and every minute counted.

"Guys – you should get some sleep. All of you." Caitlin looked at him for the first time since he'd confessed, but her face was hard, disappointed.

Barry agreed. "You're right. We'll get a little downtime here. Just a few hours." He tugged at Cisco. "Come on, we'll crash downstairs."

Harry muttered, more to himself, since no one likely cared what he did, as long as he stayed away. "I've got something to take care of." 

He went to the room he'd been using for the past four months, with its two hard cots and little else. It was simply a place to sleep. But as he stood in the threshold, he realized that this very well could be his home for the rest of his life. The mission was to find Zoom's hideout, rescue Jesse, get her to safety. Unless they managed to kill the monster, she would never be safe on her own Earth.

He would have to bring her here, to a place that wasn't home; a world where she knew no one, where she had nothing but him. And frankly, he wasn't much to have. A murderer and a thief were not qualities one aspired to have in a father. 

Instead of packing everything he'd brought with him, everything he'd managed to acquire over the last four months, he gathered only what was necessary – weapons and information – and left the rest behind. He'd be back. 

And then one more possibility occurred to him, which meant there was one more thing he had to do.

Finished with that task, he headed to the place where he knew he'd be least welcome. In keeping with his habit, he stood just outside the door and listened.

_"I know I said we do this as a team, Cisco, but it's going to be dangerous."_

_"And your point is?"_

_"There's a strong likelihood that we might not make it back. I can't beat Zoom. Are you sure you want to come?"_

_"You're not thinking of leaving me behind, are you? You need me to find Zoom. I'll vibe him, we'll find his lair, get Jesse out, and come home. Surgical strike. We all come home."_

There was a pause, and neither man said anything.

_"It's hopeless, isn't it?"_ Cisco sounded as tired and worn out as Harry felt.

_"It is. But it's a certainty that Harry's daughter will die if we don't go. That Harry will die, too. We have to do this, we have to try."_ Barry sounded exhausted and on the verge of tears.

Harry couldn't bear to listen anymore and pushed the door opened. "No, you don't have to go with me. You don't have to try. You shouldn't. This isn't your fight and I should never have come here."

His boys – no, not his boys because he had no right to even think of them that way, not anymore – looked at him with a mixture of anger and compassion. 

"But you did, you made this our fight. We are going with you." Barry was, as always, Barry. An obdurate, fool-hardy hero.

Harry shook his head. "Even knowing that if it comes down to you or my daughter, I'd choose Jesse every single time? That I'd leave you behind if I had to? Both of you?"

Barry nodded and looked over to Cisco, who did the same.

"Then both of you are idiots. I just betrayed you and you're still willing to follow me into hell?"

Cisco shrugged. If the gesture was meant to convey a sense of insouciance, it failed. "We've been betrayed before, Harry. What you've done is a fucking prank in comparison."

Harry scrubbed his face. "Okay. Okay – I just don't want any misunderstandings."

Barry laughed and the sound was unkind. "Believe me, neither of us have any illusions anymore."

He deserved that. He deserved a hell of a lot worse. "One other thing." He paused, trying to find the right words. "If it's a choice between me and Jesse, it's Jesse. No hesitation, no questions. You leave me and get my daughter to safety. You bring her here and you don't come back for me. What goes for you goes for me." Then like the damn fool that he was, he added, "Promise."

Barry stood up, chin lifted, gaze direct – much as he had when he'd let him out of that cell – and shook his head. "No. You really don't understand. We're a team and no one gets left behind. Jesse's our mission, but that's not permission to leave you to die."

"I'm not dragging _your_ bodies back." He didn't know if he was lying, because the thought of abandoning Barry or Cisco to Zoom was terrifying. Once upon a time, he had such romantic ideals – never leave a fallen comrade-in-arms. But those ideals had been burned out of him long ago, when his command left him to rot as a fuck-toy for enemy officers in a brothel.

"That's your choice. This is ours," Cisco answered. 

"Just as long as we understand each other." Why the hell was he lingering?

"Of that, there's no doubt." Barry kept standing there, still in that hero's pose, still so damn young it was breaking his heart.

Harry let out a shuddering sigh. "Will you do something for me?"

Cisco snorted, obviously amused that he'd ask for a favor. Barry just nodded.

"If I'm killed and you get back here with Jesse, please take care of her? She won't have anyone else."

"Of course." Two simple words were a hero's promise that would never be broken.

Harry pulled a sealed envelope from his back pocket. "And if that happens, please give this to her."

To his surprise, Barry didn't try to insist that nothing would go wrong. The boy might be an idiot, but he wasn't stupid. He took the letter and tucked it in the book on the nightstand with another simple promise, "I will."

He nodded, the gesture terse. "Then I'll leave you to your rest." He turned to leave, but Barry was suddenly in his path.

"You need to stay."

"What?" 

Cisco was behind him and rested a warm hand on his waist. "Come on, Harry. Stay with us."

"No, no." He tried to pull away. "What are you doing?"

"Giving you what you need."

_Oh, god, no._ "Don't."

"Don't what?"

"How can you? After what I did?"

Barry took a step forward, forcing him back. Cisco helped, pulling him towards the bed and said, "You did what any good father would do."

"Really?" He wondered if these two would be quite so cavalier if they knew he killed Russell Glossen. Stolen speed was one thing, murder was another

Barry qualified Cisco's statement. "Perhaps I should say, you did what any father with multiple degrees in advanced physics and math, and access to some pretty sophisticated technology would do."

Harry couldn't stop the burble of laugher. "You're crazy, Allen. Both of you are nuts."

"Probably. But that's nothing new." Barry kept moving forward and Cisco was pulling him back until they tumbled onto the bed.

"Tonight, we rest. Just for a few hours." Cisco pulled off his sweater but left his undershirt on. Barry knelt to take his boots off.

"I don't deserve this."

From behind him, Cisco's answer was muffled as he pulled his own sweater off. "Nope, you'll get no argument from me about that. But you're here and you need to sleep."

"I'll sleep just fine in my own bed."

Barry snorted and sat down next to him to pull off his sneakers. "You'll sleep better with us, and honestly, we'll sleep better with you. None of us have time for nightmares tonight."

He had to make a last ditch effort. "What if someone comes looking for you?"

"Unlikely. Joe is home with Iris by now. Caitlin's probably with Jay – he's got a bunk on the other side of the lab. Who else is there?"

Harry's stomach twisted at the mention of Jay Garrick, and of course his boys picked up on that.

"What's the matter?"

"You shouldn't trust him."

Cisco kept digging, "Why not? I mean we know you two don't get along, but why?"

Harry couldn't go into it. Not without discussing things he couldn't bring himself to share. "Just – don't trust him. Watch your backs with him, that's all I'm saying."

Barry nodded. "Okay."

Harry let Cisco pull him into bed and he spooned around him as Barry turned off the light and squeezed in behind him. 

"You all right?"

He tried not to think of everything that could go wrong tomorrow and concentrated on the warmth his boys were sharing with him. Not just the physical presence, but their precious trust despite everything he done to destroy it. 

Hope once again blossomed in him. "Yes."


	15. Chapter 15

**Now, The Second Morning After Returning From Earth-2**

Caitlin had managed to get a few hours' sleep in the med bay after Jesse took Tina McGee down to her room. It never failed to amaze her that in the darkest and most tragic of moments, there was always one small bright spot.

Like finding hope in the bottom of Pandora's box.

On another world, another Tina McGee had been married to Harrison Wells and on this world, Tina McGee, who had once been another Harrison Wells' friend, was now working to save his life.

"How are you holding up?" Joe came back into the Cortex, carrying bags of food. 

Caitlin shrugged. "It's all so surreal."

"I've been saying that for two years." Joe shook his head. "You know the story I'm sure – how Barry was always chasing after the impossible, the improbable, the weird. I would try my best to keep him grounded in reality, but I rarely succeeded. Now, I have to keep reminding myself that reality really is the impossible, the improbable, and the weird."

Caitlin tried to smile, but one thought kept chasing all the others away. Jay, and his role in all of this. "I should go bring some food down to the Pipeline."

Joe got up. "You're not going to see him by yourself, Caitlin."

"Don't worry, Joe – I'm not letting him out."

"I didn't think you were. It's just that you shouldn't face him alone." 

"I'll get Barry or Cisco to come with me."

"How about I come with you? Those two will need all the sleep they can manage."

"Thanks." Caitlin rummaged through the food and took a bag and sighed. "Harry hated Jay on sight and Jay was pretty quick to tell us how untrustworthy Harry was, how he was keeping secrets. Since Harry looked like Thawne and we were all still too raw from that betrayal, it was easy not to trust him. And Jay seemed so nice, so sincere."

"He played you."

"Just like Eobard Thawne did. I don't know what Jay's role is in this, but it's not a good one. Harry was right about Jay; we just didn't want to listen."

Joe followed her down to the Pipeline and didn't say a word as she hesitated at the control panel. Caitlin took a deep breath and disengaged the outer door and summoned the cell holding Jay.

In the blue-tinged light, he didn't look good. He also looked angry – at least until he saw her, then the anger smoothed out into that familiar caring smile. "Cait."

"I brought you food." She put the bag from Big Belly Burger into the transfer chute and engaged.

"That's all you have to say?"

"I have nothing else to say, Jay." She turned to leave.

"After everything? You told me you couldn't watch another man die, but you're going to let me die in here? You know I need you, that you're the only one who'll be able to save me."

Caitlin froze, but she didn't turn around. Jay was just playing on her worst fears. She said, "You're not going to die today or tomorrow. When we get Doctor Wells back, we'll deal with you."

"But you're not going to get him back. Zoom has him, he's dead." Jay banged his fist against the wall. "You're going to rescue a corpse."

Joe caught her eye and shook his head. It was time to go. As she touched the control to lower the outer door, she very clearly heard Jay mutter, "Bitch."

Joe took her arm and gently led her away. "Come on, Caitlin. We've got more important things to do than deal with that piece of shit."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Barry eased out of the bed he shared with Cisco, doing his best not to disturb his friend. Cisco had fallen into a twitchy sort of sleep, muttering something in incomprehensible Spanish, but now he was quiet and relaxed, breathing deeply. After last night's emotional breakdown, Barry wanted to make sure Cisco had as much rest as he could get.

Today was going to be just as difficult for him.

He left their makeshift bedroom, closed the door and found Joe and Caitlin coming back from the Pipeline. He didn't have to ask what they'd been doing – they'd gone to see Jay.

Caitlin looked wrecked and Barry gave her a hug, trying not to think about her Earth-2 doppelganger. "I'm so sorry."

"I'm okay. Better to see his true colors now, right?"

"Yeah, right."

Barry looked at his foster father, grateful for his presence. "Did you get any rest?"

"A few hours, couldn't help but snooze when Doctor McGee and Jesse were talking physics and math and God knows what else. But by the time they left the Cortex for some down time, it seemed like they'd gotten the problem solved. Just processing the equations or something."

Barry looked at his watch, it was a little before seven, which meant that he and Cisco had gotten about four hours of sleep. Just the amount that Caitlin prescribed. 

Joe gestured to a pile of Big Belly Burger bags, "I got food. I wanted to be useful."

"Thank you. And you are more useful than you know."

"I haven't told Iris anything, but she's not going to stay away another day. You know she's probably on her way here."

"I do. And she should know that I'm going back. I wouldn't leave without saying goodbye." Not this trip.

"And you're coming back, Bar. Don't think there's any possibility that you won't." Joe sounded wrecked. "I know there's nothing I can do or say that will stop you from going to rescue Wells, but damn it, you better come back."

Barry nodded. He wouldn't give Joe false promises, because there was a very real chance that he'd fail. 

At the sound of an incoming text, Joe pulled out his phone. "And I was right. Iris will be here in about five minutes." 

Which was just enough time for him to scarf down about half the food that Joe had brought in. 

He looked up as Iris came into the Cortex, a troubled expression on her face. "I understand you had a busy day yesterday."

He swallowed and nodded. "We had to figure out how to reopen the breach and get back to Earth-2."

"You also had to travel back in time and talk to Eobard Thawne."

"Who told you?"

"Caitlin."

Barry looked over at his friend and she shrugged, an unrepentant expression on her face. "I texted her after you got back."

Iris actually growled at him, "I should be so angry at you – what if something had gone wrong?"

"You'd have never known, Iris. The timeline would have changed and it's possible that none of this – " Barry gestured around the lab, "would exist or would have happened. I'd probably not be the Flash, you might not even be a reporter." Barry couldn't help but think of the other Iris and the other Barry. But this wasn't the time to talk about that, and if there never was the time, well Iris was probably better off not knowing about her doppelganger.

She smacked him. "I'd know. I'd _always_ know."

He took her hands and stroke his thumb over the soft skin, the fragile bones, the strength and cleverness contained within them. He loved this woman so much and couldn't bear to think of a life without her in it. Love was love, whether romantic or filial or something finer, something that could never be labeled.

"I'm going back to Earth-2 today. In a few hours."

"I know." Her voice was small and sad and resigned.

"There's a real chance I won't come back. That I won't be able to rescue Harry, that Zoom will get me. But I can't leave him there to die."

Iris blinked and pulled a hand away to wipe at her cheek, to block a sniffle with the back of her wrist. "You wouldn't be you if you let that happen. And you will come home, you'll bring Harry home, I refuse to see any future but that."

Barry swallowed his emotions and sat with Iris, drawing from the strength she so freely shared with him. She was his dearest friend and so much more. He'd know her in every world, in every time. No matter what universe he was in, he would have his Iris and she would have him.

A clatter of footsteps shattered the moment. Dr. McGee and Jesse had come into the Cortex and he looked up to find Cisco a few steps behind. Iris gave him an understanding smile and he went to the two women.

"You've figured it out?"

"Yes we have, Mr. Allen. Young Jesse here found a few flaws in my equations, but I think – " Dr. McGee checked the monitor in front of her, "we've got the complete parameters for using the tachyonic field emitter to stabilize the breach. As the _other_ Wells suggested, the tachyons can be used as on-off switches, making the breach into a doorway, which will be more secure than your speed cannon. We just need to find the breach's 'shadow', and deploy the reconfigured quark matter device." The woman laughed. "Basically, we simply need to rewrite Einsteinian physics. No problem."

Cisco picked up his vibing glasses. "I just need to finish the tweaks on these and I think we're good to go."

Barry looked around the room, at his friends and his family, in wonder. "Thank you, everyone. You are incredible. You have done the impossible."

Cisco looked up from his work and grinned at him. "Bid me run, and I will strive with things impossible." 

"Shakespeare, Cisco?"

"Thought it time to bring out the big guns."

Barry grinned and asked Dr. McGee, "How much longer?"

"About an hour, plus whatever time we need to reconfigure the quark matter device. Maybe a little less with Jesse's help." 

"Good. Cisco, how much time do you need?"

"About the same."

"Okay. Caitlin, can we talk?" He gestured to the medical bay and followed her in, closing the door behind them.

"What's the matter? Are you feeling all right?"

"I'm fine. But I need you to keep calm, I need to tell you something and you can't give anything away."

"Barry? What's going on?"

"Caitlin, please. Just pretend you're checking my vitals, okay?"

She nodded and began by attaching a blood pressure cuff. 

"When Cisco vibed Jesse, to see what we could find out about Harry's condition, he saw …" Barry looked up at the ceiling and squeezed his eyes shut.

Caitlin stopped. "What did he see?"

"He saw Zoom raping Harry." 

Caitlin turned so her back was to the Cortex and she shoved her fist into her mouth.

"I'm telling you this because I'm going to need medical supplies. I'll be able to carry Harry back, but he might be very badly hurt. I'm going to need to know how to treat him, if he needs to be stabilized." He put a hand on Caitlin's shoulder. "Can you do that?"

"Yes." Her voice was a broken whisper. "Let me finish this and I'll put a kit together. If you can go down to the room where you and Cisco bunk, I'll meet you there and tell you what you'll need to do."

Caitlin finished checking him out and Barry left the med bay. "Doctor McGee, can you spare Jesse for a few minutes?"

"Certainly – but just a few minutes." She gave him a searching look before nodding at Harry's daughter. "Go with Mr. Allen, child."

Jesse followed him down to the room off of the Pipeline. "Barry? What's the matter?"

He retrieved the letter Harry had given him two nights ago and handed it to her. "Your dad wrote this, he wanted me to give it to you in case he didn't come back."

"He's coming back, Barry – I don't want this." She tried to give the letter back. "You'll bring my dad home."

Barry refused to take it. "Jesse, I will do everything I can to make that happen. You've see that, but I can't ignore reality, either. I may fail, I may not make it back. You don't have to read it now, but you should have it in case I don't come back."

Jesse bit her lip. "Do you know what's in here?"

"No. He gave it to me like that."

"He gave me this, too." Jesse held up her wrist. "As we were leaving his office and going to the portal. It's his meta-human sensing watch." The watch didn't make a sound, unlike the one Iris' doppelganger had been wearing. But when Jesse flicked the cover open, the indicator light was red, sensing Barry's meta-genes.

"Could I take a closer look at it?"

Jesse reluctantly unstrapped it from her wrist. "Don't break it."

"I won't, I promise." Barry had never asked Harry if he could examine the watch, it seemed very personal and not something that the other man would share. He tapped on the screen and a menu came up, but instead of a broad selection of apps, there were only three – time, meta-sensing and voice notes. Next to the last was a number – 107 – in parentheses. He wondered if Harry, like Thawne, had kept a diary of sorts of his time here on this Earth. Or maybe he'd made notes about his progress against Zoom. Regardless, he handed the watch back to Jesse without comment.

"Guys?" That was Caitlin from the doorway. "I just need to go over a few things with Barry, and I think Doctor McGee needs you back in the Cortex, Jesse."

Jesse nodded, put the letter from her father in her pocket and left him with Caitlin.

"You've got what I'll need?"

"Yes." Caitlin shut the door behind her and dropped a small medical kit on the bed. "You've taken basic first aid, right?"

"Actually, I've gone through advanced training – I had to before joining the CCPD. It's required for all field personnel."

"Good, then I don't need to tell you the basics on how to pack a wound, how to look for signed of shock and internal bleeding."

"Right."

"If you have time for more than the basics, give Harry this." Caitlin pulled out a pressure syringe.

"What is that for?"

"Post-Exposure Prophylaxis."

"AIDS?" Barry thought he might be sick. 

"And a number of other blood-borne diseases that can be sexually transmitted but will respond to early post-exposure treatment. And before you ask, Harry gave me a copy of the Earth-2 genetic map as well as a database of Earth-2 illnesses. Most of the diseases have different names, but they are the same, genetically. So what's in this syringe will not negatively affect Harry's Earth-2 biology and will work on common sexually transmitted diseases."

"Okay. What else?"

"Be careful, Barry. Harry's condition might be unstable and a fast trip could cause more damage."

"I know, but speed is the key."

"And be careful for yourself. We can't afford to lose you."

Barry tried to make some off the cuff remark, but he couldn't. Not after he'd just told Jesse the unvarnished truth.

Caitlin handed him something else. "I pulled these from the stores. In case – you know."

It was a rolled up pair of S.T.A.R. Labs sweat pants. "Good thinking." He looked around the room and despite the number of hours that he and Cisco – and Harry – spent here, it was still remarkably barren. "I'll need a backpack or something."

"Cisco probably has what you need. I'll go see what he has in his workroom." Caitlin picked up the medical supplies and tucked them under her arm before turning to leave.

Barry reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. "Look, about Jay – I'm sorry."

"No, don't be. I told you, I was lonely and he was nice and I didn't want to see beyond that. But he's not nice and the more I think about what he's told me and what I've seen, I'm ashamed at my blindness and stupidity. He's involved with Zoom, I know it but I can't prove it."

"We'll prove it. We unmasked the Reverse-Flash, remember? We will unmask him, too."

"First priority, though, is getting Harry back."

"Yes." He gave Caitlin a quick hug. "I'll meet you in the Cortex, okay?"

Before Barry headed back, he went into one of the secured storerooms – the one where Cisco kept some of his more dangerous projects, and found what he needed. Not only did he have to rescue Harry, he had to keep his promise to free the man in the mask. 

Back in the Cortex, he found Cisco, Jesse and Doctor McGee still working on their various projects. Joe and Iris were pacing.

"Well?"

Cisco looked at him. "You've only been gone fifteen minutes, dude. We told you we needed an hour, so do the math."

"Okay, okay. Anything I can do to help?" He hated waiting, even under the best of circumstances.

Jesse asked him to help her with what was clearly more advanced version of the quark matter bomb. "Hold this steady." She inserted a capsule with what Barry presumed was the CFL quark matter.

"You didn't need me for this, did you?"

"Nope. But you needed to do something." She tightened down the cover with a small screwdriver and checked the power panel.

Barry laughed. "That's something Harry would do."

"Who do you think I learned it from?"

He shook his head, and promised what might be the impossible. "I'm bringing him home, Jesse."

She lifted her chin and stared him in the eye. "Of course you will. You're the Flash."


	16. Chapter 16

Cisco finished with the glasses at least fifteen minutes ago and he was just tinkering, now. The truth was, he was terrified. That they wouldn't work. And almost more terrified that they would.

He wanted Harry back, he wanted him here and home and yelling and throwing things at him. He wanted the man's anger and contempt and affection like a cat wanted the warmest, least convenient part of the house. But with what he saw, Zoom's body heaving and monstrous in its parody of intimacy, Harry on his knees, his face still and composed, except for the agony in his eyes, how would he ever come back from that?

_No, no, no._ Cisco tried to stop that train of thought. As long as Harry was alive, nothing else mattered.

Jesse called his name, put her hand on his shoulder to get his attention and he was … gone.

_He knew this place. He'd been here – Zoom's lair – before, both physically and psychically. The first was the time he'd vibed Jesse, a few days after Harry's appearance on Earth-1, and it had been all shadows and fog and blue lightning – Zoom's signature. The reality had been much different – Jesse had been held a vast mountaintop cavern filled with ancient engines and golden light filtering through the dust. Yesterday, when he'd vibed Harry, he had no sense of the surroundings – just the cage where Jesse had been kept and the horror of Zoom's assault._

_Now, he could see Harry in both time and space. The lighting was close to reality, the time was early morning, given the angle of the shadows – so Cisco hoped he was seeing the present. Because he was seeing Harry, chained and bruised but alive, sitting on the floor of that cell, knees tucked against his chest, his eyes open and staring out into nothingness._

_Cisco did something he'd never done before when caught in the shadowland – he spoke. "Harry? Can you hear me?"_

_But Harry didn't respond, his facial expression didn't change._

_Instead of speaking, Cisco pushed the thought outward, "We're coming for you, Harry. Be ready."_

_Harry still didn't move, but he blinked. Slowly, two times._

_Great – if Harry was responding, it would help to know the damn code. He pushed again, "Once for yes? Twice for no?"_.

"Cisco? Cisco?" Barry shook him.

"Damn it! I almost had it."

"Had what?" 

"Harry – he was trying to tell me something."

"You were vibing my dad?"

"Yeah – you touched me and I just went … off."

"He's alive? He was talking to you?"

"Yes, he's alive. But he wasn't really talking. I was telling him that we're coming, and I wasn't sure if he could hear me." Cisco didn't want to explain about how he was _pushing_ thoughts through the shadowlands. "He blinked twice, slowly – but I didn't know the code. If it was a code." 

Jesse's face was filled with joy. "I wanted to ask you to vibe for him again, but you were so sick the last time, it didn't seem right."

"I think, because I'm so on edge – we're all so on edge – that my powers are on a hair trigger."

Barry asked, "That's good, right?"

Cisco looked at the set of double lenses. "I think so."

Dr. McGee spoke, her tone slightly bemused. "This is another interesting bit of information you left out, Mr. Allen."

Barry smiled slightly and shrugged. "Some things aren't easy to fit into the narrative." He turned to Cisco, "So – you think Harry heard you?"

"Not one-hundred percent certain, but …" He made a wavering gesture with his hand. 

"Did you see Zoom?"

"No – and that was one of the weird things about this vibe."

" _One_ of the weird things?" This time, Dr. McGee's tone was arch.

He ignored it. "The other times that I vibed one of Zoom's captives – either Jesse or Harry – I could sense Zoom nearby. The blackness, the fog, the blue lightning, like a signature. This time, it was like I was back on Earth-2, back on the mountaintop, no crazy disco lighting."

Joe suggested, "So, maybe Zoom wasn't around?"

"That seems to be the best explanation." Cisco grimaced. "I wish I could have talked to Harry, though. Made him understand we haven't given up on getting him back."

"You'll talk to him soon enough." Barry gave him a quick hug. "If everything's ready, that is."

"Yes, Mr. Allen. Everything from our end is ready." Dr. McGee held up something that looked like the device that Thawne had stolen last year, but simpler. "Since we want to create a secure doorway, you'll need to be able to open it from the other side. This is your key."

"Smart." Cisco held out his hand, "Can I see it?"

Dr. McGee reluctantly gave it to him. 

"Barry – get into the suit, I might need to make some modifications." And of course, Barry was in the suit before the words left his mouth. 

"Will there be problems with that fitting over chest piece?"

"That's what I need to see." He clipped it into place and it fit perfectly. Cisco glanced over his shoulder at Dr. McGee.

"I took measurements." She was definitely laughing at him.

Cisco bowed his head in awed deference, "You are officially now a member of Team Flash."

Dr. McGee thanked him with a smile.

Barry was practically bouncing on his feet. "So, are we ready?"

Caitlin came back into the Cortex, holding a black backpack with a vampire Hello Kitty embroidered on it. "Hey, that's mine!" He made to grab at it.

"Sorry, Cisco – Barry needs it." Caitlin held it out of his reach.

"Don't worry, I'll bring it back." 

Cisco mock-sighed. "Is nothing sacred?"

Barry added the things he'd brought with him, shifted everything around so the pack was balanced, and fitted it around his shoulders.

"We're ready." Jesse was holding the quark-matter device and Dr. McGee fitted the other part of the tachyon field emitter around it. Everything clicked into place with a satisfying snap.

Cisco picked up the vibing glasses and lead the augmented Team Flash down to the basement room where the breach _used_ to exist.

This was the first time they'd been down here since they'd come back from Earth-2 and that asshole, Jay, had closed the portal. It was strange not to see the writhing blue mass of nothingness.

"Cisco?" Barry rested a hand on his shoulder. "You ready?"

"As I'll ever be." He put the glasses on. They were heavy and immediately started to slide down his nose, but he caught them, pushed them back and flicked the switch that activated the lenses that Harry had created. 

The world flared and broke into a million pieces, like fractured glass. This wasn't anything like what he'd experienced before. Everything was chaos and nausea threatened to overwhelm him. Then he flipped down Reverb's lenses and it got worse, and then better. The fractures organized; first like a kaleidoscope slowly rotating and reforming, then into something resembling reality.

"I can see it. I can see the breach." It was there, a writhing blue mass, just at it had been the day they'd discovered it.

"What do we do now?"

Dr. McGee replied, "Now, we reopen it. Mr. Allen, if you'd do the honors?"

Cisco could see Barry, and something else – his speed, a bright gold and red nimbus curling around him like a lover – as he stepped onto the platform. He was in the center of the breach's shadow. "Here, Cisco?"

"Yeah, that's good. That's perfect."

Barry stepped down. "And now?"

Jesse held up a remote. "Now we activate."

Cisco desperately wanted to remove the glasses, but he was the only one who could see what would happen to the breach. Joe pulled him back and the entire team was clinging to the wall. "Will someone press the damn button already?"

"Here goes!" The remote gave a little click and Cisco was almost blinded. He pulled off the glasses and the world returned to normal – or as normal as a world could be with a wormhole in the basement of a defunct laboratory.

"Did we do it?"

Barry stepped onto the platform. "It looks that way."

"Doctor McGee, what about the speed cannon? Do we need it now?"

"It will ensure a stable transit, so yes."

Barry flicked the switch and the rings came on line, sending a low hum through the room. "Is there any way we can test this? That I'm going back to Earth-2?"

Cisco took a deep breath. "I think so." He went up to the wormhole, close enough to feel the otherness of it, and lowered both sets of lenses and _looked_. "I can see the other side – the other S.T.A.R. Labs. I can – " He gasped, "see Harry's pack, the pulse rifle. It's still there. It's still there!"

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Barry never wanted to run more than he did at this moment. They'd done the impossible and reopened the breach. He calculated the distance between Central City and the woodlands to the north, about thirty miles – a distance he could cover in seconds at his top speed. He could get to Harry, free him, free the masked man and be back in less than a half hour.

"I'm going, guys. It's gotta be now."

Joe, of course, hugged him and told him he damn well better come home. Iris looked at him, her heart in her eyes. "Come back to us, Barry." She kissed his cheek and his skin tingled from the contact.

Caitlin hugged him. "It seems like we just did this."

"We did."

Dr. McGee didn't seem the huggable type and Barry held out his hand. "Thank you for everything."

She took and pulled him into a surprisingly fierce and wordless embrace.

That just left Jesse and Cisco.

Jesse was doing her best imitation of her father, trying to be stoic and failing miserably. Barry kissed her forehead. "Keep watch for us."

"I will."

And finally, Cisco. His _other_ best friend, his other half, a part of him he'd never expected to have and someone he needed as much as the air he breathed. "Don't forget, get all the erasers and markers together – we've got an office supply dodgeball party to organize."

Cisco laughed, but it sounded almost like tears. "Come home with him, you big idiot."

"I will."

Barry looked around the room, wishing he could carry all of the love and hope these people had for him. But in the end, he only had himself.

"Okay, this is it." He stepped through the breach and focused on what he needed to do on the other side. And suddenly, he was _there_.

As Cisco had seen, the pulse rifle and Harry's backpack were on the floor – Zoom must have torn them off him before taking him away. The pulse rifle could be useful, but the backpack – no. Not now.

Remembering what Martin Stein had done with Caitlin's bag that day so many months ago, and how it ended up back in Caitlin's possession, Barry flung the backpack through the wormhole, figuring that it would let his friends know that he'd arrived safely. He flipped a switch on the chest piece and the portal disappeared.

Barry adjusted the pulse rifle's strap, made certain that it didn't interfere with his backpack or the tachyon device on his chest and left, easily phasing through the security doors.

It was well past time to go get Harry.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

A few seconds after Barry departed, something sailed back through the wormhole – her father's backpack. She stared at it in wonder. "Well, I guess Barry made it safely."

Nervous laughter echoed around the room and everyone seemed inclined to stand around and wait for Barry's return. Dr. McGee was talking to someone on her cell phone, Iris was with Caitlin and Cisco and Joe, and they kept looking over at her. But she preferred her isolation at the moment.

Her father's letter was burning a hole in her pocket. When Barry gave it to her, she thought that accepting it would be like giving up. But Barry wasn't giving up. No one was giving up. And she needed her dad's words right now; she needed to know what her dad wanted to tell her. Jesse sat down on the steps in front of the portal and opened her dad's letter.

_My dearest Jesse –_

_I don't know where to begin, except to tell you that I love you and every moment that you are gone has been agonizing. It's taken far too long to rescue you, I've made too many missteps along the way, but if you are reading this, then you are safe and well and that is all that matters._

_Chief among my many regrets is that I will not be here to see you become the spectacular person you are destined to be. Brilliant and compassionate, a far better and far smarter human being than I ever was._

_Trust Barry Allen, Cisco Ramon, Caitlin Snow and the Wests. I know you are feeling lost and stranded, but put your faith in them. They are the finest people I've ever met, except for you and your mother. They will help you build a life here._

_DO NOT TRUST JAY GARRICK. I know we've had words about him, and you are probably inclined to see him as a hero, but he is not. I have known Garrick for too many years. He may portray himself as a hero to the people of Central City, but he is craven and without morals or conscience. Even if Barry and his team trust him, you need to keep your distance and remain wary and on your guard around him. He will eventually reveal his true nature._

_I am not a good man, either – I let progress blind me to what really matters and my arrogance nearly cost you your life. It has cost me my honor and my self-respect. I have done many terrible things in my quest to get you back, to ensure your safety, and when you learn of my actions, you may hate me._

_I can live with that, as long as you know you have been my bright pole star, my lodestone, and my reason for being. You are my joy, my little Jesse Quick, and I will love you forever._

The letter dropped to the floor unheeded as Jesse silently cried. The tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked. Someone noticed and sat down next to her, it was Cisco. And like they had the first night, they sat huddled together, but this time, he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight, whispering that Barry would be back soon and her dad would be with him, and all would be well.


	17. Chapter 17

According to his calculations, it was over twenty hours since Zoom had visited. Not that he was at all eager for another encounter with the monster, but he worried. If Zoom wasn't here, tormenting him or ripping the speed from the masked prisoner, was he on the other Earth, killing everyone he loved?

He kept obsessing on the thought that he rescued Jesse only to put her into greater peril.

Harry closed his eyes and tried to remember his daughter's face, her joy in seeing him, her annoyance at being told she had to leave everything behind, that bright spark of wonder at the sight of the wormhole.

He shifted on the hard ground, his tattered jeans providing little cushion. For the lack of anything better to do, he tried using the lock picks again, but they still didn't work. Wrong size, wrong shape and he couldn't seem to figure out how to alter them. Not that he'd have any way to get out of here, the "stairs" that Killer Frost created had barely survived the first trip back and he imagined, after nearly two days, that they were long gone.

It would be nice, though, to get his hands free. He wanted to meet the monster and his eventual death in battle – no matter how unequal – rather than as a trussed pig. But that wasn't to be. He managed to fit the picks back into his jacket collar without strangling himself and just sat there, waiting for something to happen.

Waiting for death to come in black leather and blue lightning.

But while Zoom didn't come, the delusions did. He could hear Cisco, _"Harry? Can you hear me?"_

Of course it wasn't Cisco. Cisco was home, and he prayed, safe. Brilliant, beautiful Cisco Ramon, who drove him crazy and made him proud; he was so powerful and yet so powerless in the same moment. Harry could hear him, as if he was standing in the cell next to him, _"We're coming for you, Harry. Be ready."_

Could it be? Could Cisco have managed to vibe across dimensions? To communicate with him?

He blinked slowly, trying to concentrate, trying to forge a connection back, trying to tell him to watch out for Jay, that Jay was Zoom. But it was futile, Cisco was gone and he probably had never been here, it was just a febrile delusion borne of pain and hope.

The minutes passed all too slowly. Harry tried to concentrate on Jesse, on a lifetime of memories, to replace the pain in his body with the joy in his soul, but he couldn't focus. He tried to remember the touch of her hand, small and hot and damp, and they went to the park, to the museum, even on that terrible day in the planetarium when he'd lost her for a heartbreaking hour. But she was, for the first time since her birth, a distant spark, too far away to hold in his mind.

Like his boys. He loved them so very much, even though he couldn't speak the words, even though he'd betrayed them and in similar circumstances, would do so again. Or would he?

Truth was, he didn't know and he couldn't bring himself to care. He wasn't going to have the chance.

He glanced over at the man in the mask; he was on his feet and more animated than he'd been since Zoom's last visit. He was looking at the cavern entrance. Harry tried to turn, but the chains were too short.

Then he witnessed a miracle. A bright streak of yellow-gold lightning came to a halt in front of him.

_Barry_

He wanted to rage at this defiance of his command. He'd told Barry not to come back, not to try to rescue him, but he couldn't help the joy that leapt at his appearance. Without a word, Barry lifted the cage door. When he finally spoke, it was in a whisper, almost too full of emotion. "Are you all right?"

"I've been better. You shouldn't have come back, you idiot."

Barry grinned. "I told you, no one gets left behind. You're part of us, Harry. We will always come for you."

He wanted to cry. "You're fool, Allen."

"You've told me that before."

"And I'll tell you that again, but the world needs fools like you." _I need fools like you._ "How's Jesse?"

"Anxious to see her father." Barry dropped pulse rifle near him like a cat offering his master a dead bird. "You left this behind."

Harry didn't know whether to laugh or cry. "It wasn't my intention. Can you get me out of these?"

Barry pulled off a backpack – from the bizarre logo, it was likely one of Cisco's – and took out a hand-held laser cutter, making quick work of his shackles. Hands freed, he watched as Barry rummaged through the pack, pulling out medical supplies. 

"We know what Zoom did to you." Now, Barry's voice was even, without drama or pity. "First priority is to make sure you're stable. How badly are you hurt?"

Harry appreciated the matter-of-factness and he didn't question how they knew. Cisco must have vibed at least one of the assaults. "It's not life threatening – at least I don't think so."

Behind the mask, Barry's eyes were searching, filled with all the emotion that his voice refused to convey. "Can I examine you?"

Harry nodded and kept still while Barry did a basic check for signs of shock and internal bleeding, his hands gentle but relentless. "You seem stable. Do you need me to treat you or can you manage yourself? Doctor Snow is standing by for trauma care." 

_Doctor Snow_ , not _Caitlin_. A medical professional, not a friend. "I can manage. But I'll need – " He was about to say "pants" when Barry handed him a pair of sweats.

"I need to finish what I should have done last time I was here." Barry tilted his head towards the speedster's cage.

"Go. I can care for myself."

Barry took the pack and went to the other cell and spoke softly – too softly for Harry to hear. It wasn't important, though. He needed to get himself mobile. He shifted through the medical supplies, finding the pressure syringe marked "PEP" and injected himself. Yes, Snow knew what she was doing. He pulled off the remnants of his jeans and undershorts and started to take care of the damage Zoom inflicted. It took some effort to coax cramped muscles into accepting the packing, but it wasn't as if this was the first time he'd needed to field dress wounds like this. 

The sweats, complete with a small S.T.A.R. Labs logo, were warm and soft, a welcome reminder of home. There would be time to appreciate that later, as long as they could escape before Zoom decided to return.

He watched as Barry scored the transparent carbine wall of the masked speedster's cell and set vibration charges before retreating. The charges whined and material fractured like windshield glass. Barry picked up a metal pole and completed the destruction. 

The man in the mask stepped through the hole and presented the back of his head to Barry, who used the laser cutter to open the lock on the mask.

Harry held his breath, waiting for this speedster to reveal his identity, but as he pulled the mask off, the man muttered something that sounded like a mathematical formula and disappeared in a blaze of yellow lightning.

Barry turned back to him with a grin on his face. "That's gratitude for you."

"We have to get out of here." Harry picked up the pulse rifle and slung it over his shoulder, feeling energized by its familiar presence.

"You ready?"

"Not quite." He held up a hand. "Something you need to know. Jay Garrick is Zoom."

He expected protestations, arguments, a demand for proof. But all he got was a grimace and a nod. 

"You knew?"

"We were pretty certain he was in league with Zoom, not that that he actually _was_ Zoom. There was just too much that didn't add up, things he told Caitlin that didn't make sense or contradicted what he'd told us. And he kept insisting you were dead, that Zoom had killed you. It was too annoying and I put him in the Pipeline." 

"Well, maybe that explains why he hasn't been here for a while." Harry couldn't help but laugh. "I've been terrified, thinking I brought Jesse to your Earth to keep her safe from Zoom, only to put her right into his hands. That he'd kill Jesse and you and Cisco and everyone else while I was trapped here. And all along, you've had him in the one cage he couldn't escape from. How … anticlimactic."

"How did you find out that Jay was Zoom?"

He shook his head. "That's a story that can wait. I want to go home. I want to see my daughter."

"Ready now?"

"Yes." The first time they'd left Zoom's lair, they'd had the benefit of Killer Frost's ice stairs and that journey had been harrowing enough. Traveling at Mach-1 down a sheer cliff face was not an experience he'd ever be able to describe and he hoped he'd never have to go through again. Barry didn't stop when they reached the forest floor, he just kept moving forward, ever forward, too fast for Harry to discern when they finally entered the city. Barry finally slowed and he realized they were approaching S.T.A.R. Labs. His heart leapt. He was almost home.

Barry headed for the small outer building where the breach had been and came to a halt. The facility was heavily secured with no obvious entrance. "I'm going to phase through and open the door from the inside."

"Not necessary, Allen." Harry touched the wall and a biometric panel appeared. He pressed his palm down and the door slid open. "After you."

The breach room was down one more level and through one more security door. He was dismayed to see that there was no sign of the breach. "Allen? What's going on?"

"We've had a little help with reopening the breach and managed to upgrade everything." He touched something on his chest – a ring and set of clips he hadn't noticed before – and the blue mass suddenly appeared. 

There were a million questions he wanted to ask, but all of them could wait. His daughter, his life, was on the other side of that wormhole. 

Barry took his arm. "Shall we?"

But before he could take that step, he turned and cupped Barry's face in his palm, his fingers slipping under the edge of the mask. "Thank you."

Wordless with emotion, Barry nodded. "Let's go home."


	18. Chapter 18

Cisco let Jesse lean on him, which was good, because he needed someone to lean on, too. Except that he felt himself slipping into the shadowlands.

"Umm, Jesse?"

"Yeah?"

"I might start vibing again, as long as you're touching me."

"Do you think you could see what's happening? If you want to? I mean I know you really don't like the whole vibing thing…"

Cisco shrugged. "It's just that I really don't know how to control my visions." He almost added, _"and I usually end up seeing really horrible things."_

"Would you try now?"

Before Cisco could answer, something happened to the wormhole. Instead of an amorphous blue mass, writhing incoherently, it became _organized_. Cisco stood up and put the glasses on.

And without conscious thought, he shouted, "YES!" 

"You can see them?"

"They're coming now!"

And just like that, Barry and Harry Wells walked through the breach, as if they were returning from an evening stroll. 

No one moved, like they were frozen in disbelief that they'd actually succeeded.

Then Barry pulled back his cowl and asked, "Someone missing a father? Because I have an extra one here."

It was like watching an old-fashion movie with two characters running towards each other in desperate reunion. Except that neither Harry nor Jesse had far to go – three steps each and they were in each other's arms. 

"Daddy."

"My Jesse, oh, my Jesse."

Cisco wiped at his eyes, but he wasn't the only one. He went to Barry and gave him a tight hug. "You did it, you really did it."

"No, _we_ did it, it was all of us."

Joe and Iris grabbed Barry from his arms and hugged him before Caitlin took her turn. Cisco stood there, happier than he could ever remember. Everything they'd planned had actually worked.

He caught Dr. McGee's eye and went over to her. "We couldn't have done this without you."

"I'm happy I had the tech available to make this happen."

"No, it wasn't just your tech. _You_ made everything work. You pulled us through and kept going when the rest of us couldn't manage a coherent thought. And I meant what I said, you're part of Team Flash now."

"Is there a special handshake? A membership card?"

"No, but it means you have an open invitation to movie nights and jumping feet first into whatever disasters are looming on the horizon."

Dr. McGee laughed. "Well, how can I turn that down?"

Her attention was distracted when Harry approached, Jesse clinging to him. Cisco knew that Harry wasn't coming to see him, and that was okay. Except that he was suddenly wrapped in an unexpected embrace.

"Ramon." Harry's voice was broken, and of course he still couldn't bring himself to use his first name. "Thank you."

He hugged Harry back, although not as fiercely as he wanted. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I am." Harry's words were quiet and too freighted with meaning. He let go and stepped back, now focusing on Dr. McGee.

"My daughter tells me you're a big part of the reason why I'm here now, how the breach was reopened."

She shrugged. "I am, apparently, part of Team Flash now. And according to Mr. Ramon here, it means that I get to help save the world on occasion."

Cisco laughed. That wasn't exactly how he'd put it, but it was still an accurate description. Then things became interesting.

"I want my pulse rifle back, Harrison."

Harry didn't say anything, he just gripped the strap like it was a lifeline.

"Harrison Wells." Dr. McGee held out her hand. "That's mine. I want it back."

"No. You can't have it."

"I saw you steal it. Do you have any idea how much it freaked me out. Watching a dead man – a dead man who was supposedly a paraplegic – walk away with it?"

"I. Don't. Care. You can't have it back."

Cisco thought it was like watching two cats circle each other over a dead bird.

Jesse, clearly torn, whispered, "Dad – you can't keep it if it's not yours."

"It's mine and I'm not giving it back. I need it." 

"Harrison, really. It's not a security blanket."

Harry just kept staring at Dr. McGee until she backed down. "Very well, keep the damn gun. But you and your daughter will be having dinner with me in the coming weeks. There's still much of your story I do not know."

"Fair enough."

Cisco wondered if Harry would actually survive that dinner. Tina McGee was his equal and then some.

"Very well, I'll be in touch. Jesse – please keep your father out of trouble."

"I will."

Dr. McGee glared at Harry again and walked over to Joe. "Detective West, may I trouble you for a lift back to my lab?"

Caitlin approached. "Dr. Wells – I think I need to check you out. Make sure you're all right."

Harry nodded and Cisco diverted Jesse, who was going to follow. "Give your dad a few, okay?"

Jesse looked worried and Harry reassured her.

"It's okay, sweetheart."

Cisco would have taken Jesse back to the Cortex, but Harry stopped him and pulled him aside. "Ramon – "

"Harry." He grinned because he couldn't help himself.

"You've experimented with cold to slow down speedsters."

"Yeah – but it's not going to work against Zoom. He moves too fast."

"Don't worry about that. Can you put together a cold bomb? Something that will target living tissue only?"

"Theoretically, yeah. But why?"

"Extreme cold will make metal and polymers brittle, susceptible to fracture and failure."

Cisco nodded, catching the drift. "Like the materials in the Pipeline cells."

"Exactly."

"You plan on luring Zoom – "

"Not now, Ramon. Just do it."

"Okay." He went back to Jesse and Harry followed Caitlin out of the breach room. "Wanna help me create something destructive?"

"Is this a pointless distraction?"

"Nope. Not in the least." 

"Then I'm in."

Barry joined them. "What's up?" 

"We're building a cold bomb." 

Barry's smile was, in a word, chilling.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Harry followed Snow into the med bay. She shut the door, lowered all the blinds and carefully met his gaze. He looked away.

"I guess Cisco told you." He knew that Snow knew, but he had to fill the awkward silence.

"No, Barry did. About an hour before he left to get you. He needed to know how to treat you if you were badly injured."

"Right. The first aid kit you provided was exceptionally well-equipped. I was able to field dress my injuries." 

"And field dressing is fine – for the field. I need to examine you."

Harry sighed. He wasn't an idiot, of course she did. With some effort, he pulled off his sweater and undershirt – both items would be burned – and caught his reflection in the glass. "It looks worse than it is." _Probably_.

"I'm the medical doctor, it's up to me to make that decision." Snow gently pushed him so he was lying flat on the gurney and positioned a portable imager over him.

Snow huffed out a small sigh. "Looks like you're right. Three cracked ribs, bruising around the kidneys and liver, but otherwise, no significant thoracic damage."

Harry smiled. "I'll live, in other words?"

"You damned well better, Harry Wells. After everything we did to get you back. After everything _Barry_ did."

Harry didn't like the emphasis Snow put on Barry's name, but she didn't give him a chance to ask.

"You need to finish getting out of your clothes, Dr. Wells." She gestured to his sweatpants.

"I've taken care of it." He didn't want to do this, not with someone he knew.

"Dr. Wells, please."

He shook his head.

"I'm a doctor, I've – "

"No."

"I know this exam is another form of trauma – "

"It's not that, Doctor Snow." 

She nodded, "Okay, I understand. Then you need to go to the hospital, if you want to be treated by strangers." 

"That's not exactly a good idea." Harry gestured at his all-too-recognizable face.

"I know – but you don't really have an alternative." She stood there, staring at him and he knew she was right.

Without comment, he removed his boots and then the sweatpants and got back on the gurney, on his belly. Snow was thorough and gentle, a far cry from the drunken incompetent who'd "taken care" of him in that brothel. But she was also relentless, quietly explaining that it would be better for him if she put in three or four small stitches. 

"Do it."

Snow was quick and the procedure complete in a handful of heartbeats. The wound was packed and the next thing he heard was her stripping off the examination gloves. "You can get dressed."

Snow waited, her back turned, until he put his clothes back on. When he grunted in pain as he bent to tie his bootlaces, she knelt and did it for him.

"Keep to a light diet for the next few days – avoid heavy proteins as well as roughage. And let me know if you start experiencing any new pain or bleeding." She met his eyes, steadfast in their concern and without embarrassment, or worse, pity.

"I will. And … " He grimaced, "thank you."

Caitlin nodded, gave him a tiny smile and left the room. Harry let out a breath that he felt he'd been holding for days. Months, actually. He went to the small sink and washed his hands. The face in the mirror was old and tired, with deep circles under his eyes, skin rough and covered in a half-gray stubble, hair a greasy mess. A shower and sleep would take care of the surface, but nothing would heal the damage that the last four months had wrought to his soul. He would never be able to go back to the man he was and he wasn't sure if he wanted to.

He felt his control begin to slip. It wasn't rage that was trying to find an exit, but relief. The sudden absence of fear was painful and terrifying, and illogical. But he couldn't break down, not yet. There were people on the other side of the door waiting for him. His daughter, his boys. Friends. People who cared about him too deeply, maybe more than he'd ever deserve. 

Harry looked at the face in the mirror, straightened his shoulders and rebuilt his mask. It would hold for a few hours.

It had to.


	19. Chapter 19

Barry was mostly an observer, watching Cisco work on the cold bomb. He knew what it was for, but he didn't share that information. 

He still didn't understand everything about Jay and how he could be Zoom, but he believed Harry without question. There was a bitter taste in his mouth, the too-familiar sharp pang under his breastbone from knowing that he trusted someone who was never trustworthy. While he grieved for Caitlin, who thought she'd found happiness with Jay, his own pain was muted. Maybe Harry's warning the night before they left helped soften that blow, or his own instincts, the ones he'd overcome to let Jay into their lives, had re-emerged.

There would be time to deal with emotions, once they pieced together this puzzle. Because Jay Garrick – Zoom – staying in the Pipeline seemed almost impossible. The creature that had tortured and tormented him wasn't one to sit idly by. The Pipeline held Eobard Thawne while he still had his speed, but Zoom was faster than Thawne by several orders of magnitude – he should have been able to phase out of there.

Then Barry remembered what Caitlin had told him about Jay and his damaged DNA. Maybe Jay truly was crippled. Maybe he needed something, either this Velocity drug or another speedster, to _be_ Zoom. Maybe … 

Caitlin came out of the med bay and disrupted his train of thought. She nodded carefully and Barry took that to mean that Harry was okay. He refocused on what Cisco was doing, but it took some effort not to look up when Harry came into the Cortex. 

Jesse noticed, of course, and ran to her father. Once again, Barry found himself on the verge of tears at the sight of their reunion.

Harry had a strange expression on his face. Well, not so much strange as unusual for him. He was smiling. Harry Wells was smiling.

Barry could see that his happiness was a thin veneer, that underneath was a seething mass of terrible emotions, but for the moment, this particular emotion was real. He stood there, an arm draped over Jesse's shoulder, she had an arm wrapped around his waist. Father and daughter, as they were supposed to be.

Together.

"So, someone want to tell me how you managed to undo the laws of physics in about two days?"

Cisco looked up from his bomb building and commented, "Not so much 'undo' as reverse engineer." And then he chuckled. 

Barry got the joke and laughed, too. So did Caitlin and Jesse. 

"What's so funny?" Harry was clearly getting annoyed.

"Oh, just _'reverse'_ -engineering." Cisco laughed again, shaking his head at his own joke, reemphasizing that key word.

"Which is a commonly used term and not cause for such mirth, unless …" 

Barry could actually _see_ Harry make the connection.

"You didn't."

He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded. 

And of course, Harry lost his temper. "That was an asinine thing to do, Allen To go back in time – do you know what you could have, what damage you might have done to the timeline? Thawne spent fifteen years – _fifteen years_ – studying you. And you can't keep a secret if your life depended on it. You changed things – people – you – " 

Barry so wanted to laugh. Harry was almost incoherent in his distress.

"Dad, calm down. Nothing's changed."

Harry looked at his daughter. "You'd never know if the timeline's change. Only Barry would know."

And Barry confirmed Jesse's statement. "It didn't, Harry. Nothing changed."

"Don't be too sure of that, Allen. Because if you believe that Thawne didn't realize he was talking to a Barry Allen from the future, then you've got another thing coming to you."

"He wouldn't have. He didn't." Barry was enjoying himself far too much.

"And how can you be so certain of that?" Harry looked like he was about to throw something.

"Because I didn't go back as myself. I put on the Reverse-Flash's suit and went back in time to a few years before the particle accelerator was finished. I used Gideon to speak for me." 

The gob-smacked expression on Harry's face was utterly priceless. 

"And just so you know, that last bit was Cisco's idea."

Harry muttered something that sounded like "What a clever boy. I'm going to kill him."

Barry and everyone else ignored Harry's imprecation, and continued, "He believed I was from a different dimension. Well, he believed that because I told him I was. It was all kind of surreal. But I kept my trip short, my contact as brief as possible, and while Thawne was definitely curious, he didn't suspect that I was anything other than his doppelganger." Barry smirked, enjoying this moment all too much. For laughs, he started vibrating and let his eyes go red.

Cisco gagged. "Dude, please stop doing that."

Harry seemed to relax. "Well, Allen – I have to say, your ingenuity impresses me. But why did you get Christina McGee involved?"

Barry thought it interesting that Harry didn't pause, didn't stutter, or otherwise betray the fact that Dr. McGee was his late wife's doppelganger. This was something else to file away and deal with later. 

Jesse answered, "Tachyons. Aunt Tina has tachyon technology and lent it to us so we could reopen and stabilize the breach. She was really cool about it." 

All Harry said was "Ah." Barry could just imagine the father-daughter conversation they were going to have about Dr. McGee. Who was now apparently "Aunt Tina".

Harry seemed to focus on something else, though. "What's this 'we', daughter of mine?" 

"Oh, Jesse's part of Team Flash now. We couldn't have gotten you back without her. She gave us some of our best ideas, like going back to ask Thawne about reengineering the breach bombs. She and Doctor McGee worked side-by-side last night to actually make it happen." Cisco chimed in with far too much glee.

Harry looked down at his daughter, love and pride warring with deep concern. Love and pride won out. "It took me four months to rescue you. It took you two days to rescue me. I think I know who's got the brains in the family."

Jesse bit her lip; Barry wasn't sure if it was out of embarrassment or laughter. But she was nothing if not gracious in sharing the praise. "I just had some ideas, Barry and Cisco and Caitlin knew what to do with them. And I wasn't the one who actually did the rescuing – that was all Barry's doing. He was the one who took all the risks.

Harry looked at him, his expression somber. "Yes, he did."

Cisco broke the moment. "So, what about Zoom and why am I building a targeted cold bomb?"

"We'll also need a cryonic chamber, one that can maintain 3 Kelvin."

"That's going to take some doing. Standard cryo-freeze is minus 173 Fahrenheit. Maintaining a level close to three times colder will require some retrofitting of our current facilities and a lot of power. Besides, I told you, Zoom moves to fast to hit him with a cold gun – I don't see how a bomb will be effective. Killer Frost only got him because he wasn't expecting that betrayal."

Barry caught Harry's eye and wondered if this was when he was going to reveal who Zoom was. But it wasn't.

"Just keep working on it. First the bomb, then the cryo-chamber. And the quicker the better."

"Okay, but you're asking for a lot of effort for something that's not going to work."

Barry was about to say something, but Harry reassured Cisco. "You've trusted me before, trust me with this."

"Okay, it's not like I can't do this, but I just hate putting a lot of work into something that's going to fail."

"Ramon."

Cisco kept tinkering and muttering under his breath.

"Cisco."

Barry tried not to smile when his friend looked up, annoyance written all over his face.

"I know it's hard, but trust me."

"Use the magic word, Harry."

Now Barry had to cover his mouth and both Jesse and Caitlin did the same thing. No one teased Harry Wells like Cisco did.

"Please. Trust. Me."

"Okay. You see, you _can_ use your words and you _can_ behave like an adult. You want cold tech, you'll get cold tech."

"Thank you."

"Just wish I understood where this was going."

Harry looked over at him, his lips twitching at their shared secret. It was easy to be amused _now_ , but when the reveal came, Barry knew that the Pipeline was going to be Ground Zero for some pretty nasty shit. Jay and Harry had a bad history and he had a feeling that a lot of that was going to come out, one way or another.


	20. Chapter 20

The day passed quietly, but Jesse kept jumping at sounds – the ping of a computer as it finished processing a task, the heating and cooling system turning on and off, even Cisco's chair as it rolled from one workstation to another. 

Finally free after four months as Zoom's prisoner, she should she'd happy, be filled with joy. Instead, Jesse felt rootless, without purpose or meaning. Maybe it was because she had nothing to do, she had no purpose. All of the immediate problems had been solved – her father was safe, Zoom was on her Earth and unless Aunt Tina came back with the tachyon technology, he was going to stay there. 

She knew it was wrong to feel so relieved. She still had friends and family on her Earth, they were still in danger. But right now, they felt too distant, almost unreal to her.

What was real was her dad. He was here and she didn't want to let him out of her sight, at least as much as possible. And she knew he felt the same. In the hours since his return, he was always turning around, looking for her. And when he found her, he smiled, sighed, and looked away. He was trying to be subtle and failing miserably. She didn't mind. She felt the same way.

She wanted to ask him about Zoom, what that monster did to him – because it was pretty clear that he'd been hurt. He was moving slowly and carefully, sometimes his breathing was shallow. She'd seen Zoom beat Barry to a near pulp, but Barry was a speedster with meta-human regenerative powers. Her father was a fifty-something year old man who was moving like an eighty year old. She wondered how bad a beating he'd taken.

Right now, he was working in a small lab off the Cortex, tinkering with some type of remote triggering mechanism. Caitlin, Barry and Cisco were in the main part of the lab working on the design of the cryonic chamber her dad asked them to build. Her dad had a plan to trap Zoom and everyone was working on making it happen. They didn't need her, which was fine. She would prefer to stay close to her father, anyway. "Dad?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Maybe you should lie down? Get some rest? You've had a rough couple of days."

He looked at her and smiled. "I'm fine. And I'm not tired."

_Bullshit_. "What about something to eat?"

Before going back to the police station, Joe West had dropped off food – more Big Belly Burger – but her dad only had a shake. She'd never seen him turn down a hamburger before, ever.

"I'm fine." He sounded tired and on the verge of irritability.

"Should I stop hovering?"

He sighed and put down the screwdriver. "I'm okay. But are you? You're the one who should be hovered over, fussed over. You're the one who spent four months chained up."

Jesse shrugged. "I'm okay."

"So, we're both okay?" Her dad was wearing the fond too-knowing half-smile she loved so much.

"No, not really."

He nodded and rubbed his ear. "Yeah."

Searching for a safe subject, she asked, "So, are we staying here?"

Her dad shrugged. "It's a possibility. I know you didn't want to leave the life you had, and now that there's a way to get back after we deal with Zoom, we could go home."

Jesse spoke without thinking. "You don't want to go, though."

Her dad looked at his hands, at the project he was tinkering with, at anything but her.

"It's okay. They are kind of awesome, you know." Jesse looked back at the trio so hard at work. 

He said quietly, "Yes, Jesse, they are." 

"We _could_ stay. If you really wanted to. I think I could be happy here."

Her dad smiled again. "We'll talk about it."

"And a few other things."

"Such as?"

"Did you know about Doctor McGee when you stole the pulse rifle from her lab?"

"That she was your mother's doppelganger? Yes." He put down the screwdriver and pulled off his glasses. "When I got here, she was the first person I tried to find. I thought maybe …"

"Maybe that she was married to your doppelganger?"

"Yeah." He let out a gusty sigh. "But she's not. And according to the news reports, there seemed to be some bad blood between her and the Harrison Wells of this Earth. Of course, it didn't help that my doppelganger was dead."

"And an imposter. An evil, murderous imposter." Jesse grinned.

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Should I?"

"Brat."

"I called her 'mom'."

"Jesse Quick, you didn't!"

She bit her lip and nodded. "I was tired and upset and it was all too much. I kind of lost it and hugged her, too. But she was pretty cool about it."

"Is she why you'd be okay with staying?"

"Yeah, in a way." 

Her dad looked at her, one eyebrow arched.

"And no, not because I think you and she would be like you and mom. She's already married."

"Yes, she is. I didn't know if you knew that."

"She told me. And apparently you two were good friends, before the whole body-snatching thing."

"Not me, my doppelganger."

Jesse chuckled. "Right. The dinner she wants to have with us should be very interesting."

Her dad laughed, too. "Interesting. That's one way to put it."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Despite his comment to Jesse, Harry _was_ tired. Achingly so, but even the idea of sleeping was anathema. Zoom was in the Pipeline, but Harry didn't know how long that would last – whether he was truly out of power and couldn't escape, or if he was just playing some sick sort of game with them.

He needed to talk with Barry and Cisco, Cisco in particular, but he couldn't – not with Jesse hovering. Harry supposed that his daughter deserved to know who Zoom was, but he wasn't ready to tell her how he knew. Nor did he want her to worry about the monster in the basement if before she had to.

He caught Snow looking at him; concern etched in her face, and got an idea. He sent her a quick text and waited for her to put this plan into motion. A few minutes later, Snow popped her head into his workroom.

"Jesse?"

"Yeah?"

"You know, it would be a good idea if I got some medical history, did a work-up on you." Snow was beautifully nonchalant.

Jesse shrugged. "Probably."

"It's quiet now."

"The calm before the storm?"

"Maybe. Come on, it won't take long. An hour at most."

Jesse looked over at him, so painfully reluctant to leave his side. He nodded. "It's a good idea. Go, I've got this and I'm not going anywhere."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

Harry held his breath until Snow and his daughter disappeared into the medical bay. He went into the Cortex, to find that only Barry was there.

At his silent question, Barry volunteered, "Cisco needed to get some parts made in his workshop."

"How's he doing?"

"He's happy you're back."

"But?"

"But he's kind of hanging by a thread."

"I'm sorry he had to see … that." Harry shoved his fists into his pockets and looked down.

"I think he feels worse about you having to go through … that. Which is why I haven't told him that Jay's Zoom. I don't know what he would do."

"Something stupid, probably."

Barry nodded. "Likely."

"I should talk to him." Harry looked at Barry, feeling like he needed permission.

"If you're up to it."

"I am." _No, I'm not._

"Okay. I'll keep Jesse occupied until one of you comes back."

"Thanks." Harry swallowed against the harshness in his throat. He started to leave.

"And Harry?"

"Just so you know, I've cut your access to the Pipeline cells. It's not that I don't trust you – "

"It's that you don't trust me not to do something stupid, too." 

"Exactly."

Harry wasn't the least bit offended. He'd probably do the same if the circumstances were reversed. Still, he had to make some sort of protest, for form's sake. "I'm not the one who acts from pure emotion."

Barry raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

"Okay, except for the last four months. You haven't exactly seen me at my best."

The other eyebrow climbed upwards, too. "Go, before you have to start eating those boots."

Harry did, heading down to Cisco's workroom. After four months of co-opting the space, he found himself suddenly reluctant to just barge in. So he knocked on the door frame, but Cisco didn't hear him. He was working at the CNC machine, with protective headgear on.

It was a pleasure to just be able to lean against the wall and watch Cisco without being dogged by grief and urgency, to be able to relax for a space of time and appreciate what he'd been given.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


	21. Chapter 21

He really didn't need to stand over the machine and watch it cut parts for the cryo-chamber. The unit was programed to an inch of its mechanical life and would do everything except deliver the parts to him, fully assembled.

But there was something about watching the cutting heads slice through billet after billet of high-carbon steel, letting the machine's vibrations sink into his bones, that soothed some of the ragged edges of his soul.

Harry was back, he was safe, and from the looks of it, whole. He even allowed himself to be teased, which was a novelty. But Cisco knew how looks could be deceiving, how easily trauma could be disguised by a quick smile, deflected by wide open eyes. 

Yesterday, and the day before that, even this morning, when everyone was so focused on reopening the breach, getting Harry back, it was easy to put what he saw away. And when it got to be too much, he was able lean on Barry and let him keep the demons away. But he couldn't keep leaning on Barry, because eventually he'd want to know what was going on inside his head, and that was something Cisco would never share.

Too soon, the CNC machine finished its task and turned itself off. The stillness was almost painful, the silence more so as he removed the protective headgear.

Just as he was reaching for the freshly milled parts, someone said, "Hello, Cisco."

Not someone, Harry. 

But regardless of the familiarity of that voice, the greeting was unexpected, and given his state of mind, it triggered him right into the shadowlands.

He didn't want to look, he so desperately didn't want to look. He had to, though. There was no such thing as willful blindness when he was vibing.

_Fog and darkness and blue lightning – Zoom – standing over Harry, who was prone on the floor of his cell. The monster was laughing as he kicked Harry, the sound was terrifying. As he said, "you are nothing and you will always be nothing", the monster pulled off his mask._

"Cisco! Cisco!" Harry was shaking him. "What did you see?"

"Jay is Zoom. Jay Garrick is Zoom." He looked up at Harry, expecting to see puzzlement, disbelief. But the concern in Harry's face morphed into weary resignation. "You know?"

Harry nodded and sighed. 

Cisco wiped his face with shaking hands. "Now I get it. The bomb, the cryo-chamber."

"Garrick doesn't know that I know. And I don't know if he's just biding his time or if he's truly helpless."

He stared at Harry, wanting to rail at him for keeping this a secret. "Does anyone else know?"

"Only Barry. And now you."

"How long have you known?" Cisco couldn't imagine that Harry knew about Jay and didn't say anything, but then he couldn't imagine that the Harrison Wells he'd loved was Eobard Thawne, wearing a dead man's face.

"Not long – Zoom said something to me when he was – " Harry's lips tightened. "Assaulting me. Something I'd once heard Garrick say to someone else."

" 'You are nothing and you will always be nothing'?"

"Yes." Harry rubbed his ear. "I'm sorry you had to see what happened."

Cisco had been dreading this conversation. If he could have vibed himself out of existence, he would have. "It's my fault."

"What do you mean?" Harry sounded shocked.

"That Zoom got you. If I'd actually thought things through, instead of acting like a cocky know-it-all, I would have realized that my power wouldn't work on your Earth. If I had, I could have planned for it." Cisco swallowed and it hurt, the lump in his throat was like a jagged stone. "You got hurt and it's my fault."

"Cisco, no."

He took a deep breath. "Harry, yes. I had one job to do – go to Earth-2 and vibe Zoom's hideout. I didn't do my job."

"As I recall, Barry went off mission too. Is it his fault, too?"

Cisco shook his head. "No, because he wouldn't have had to if I'd gotten it right in the first place."

"Stop it, just stop it." Now Harry sounded annoyed.

Cisco turned back to the CNC machine and started gathering up the pieces he'd milled. He couldn't bear to see the aggravation in the other man's face. 

"Cisco." Harry was standing behind him, so close he could feel the heat radiating off his body. His voice was soft. "What happened wasn't your fault, wasn't Barry's fault. It was a terrible thing that happened, but it wasn't your fault."

Cisco wanted to believe that, so very badly, but he couldn't.

Harry rested his hands on his shoulders. "Please, Cisco."

"I … can't." He closed his eyes and all he could see was Harry on his knees, Zoom on top of him, the memory colored in the bleak tones of the shadowlands. 

"If you want to assign guilt, Ramon, then spare a huge portion for me. Zoom is my creation. I ignored the advice of my engineers and pushed forward with the accelerator, then I ignored my responsibility when the metas started showing up. Until Zoom took Jesse, I kept telling myself that it wasn't my problem."

Intellectually, Cisco knew that Harry was right. But he couldn't stop the guilt, the unshakable feeling that his failure was the reason everything went wrong on Earth-2. He squeezed his eyes closed and prayed that he wouldn't cry. That would only make things worse.

"Cisco Ramon, my daughter is alive because of you. Barry is alive because of you. I'm alive because of you. We are safe because of you. And none of that has anything do to with your power. You talked Killer Frost into taking us to Zoom's lair, you convinced her to break Jesse's chains. Your words, your heart, your passion was what make her fight back and betray Zoom, bought us the time we needed to get off that mountain.

"When I was chained up, the only thing I had was time. Time to think, to regret. And do you know what my biggest regret was, after knowing I'd never see my daughter again?"

Cisco shook his head and felt hot tears burning down his cheeks.

"That I never told you what you meant to me. How I much I valued you, how much I cared about you. When you came back to S.T.A.R. Labs that morning, after losing Barry to Zoom, and I asked you why Zoom let you live, do you remember what you told me?"

Harry didn't give him a chance to answer.

"You said that Zoom cares less about you than I do. You're wrong, Cisco Ramon. I care about you, too much. How could I not?" Harry rested his cheek on the crown of his head and whispered, "How could I not?"

Cisco's head hurt, his heart hurt. It felt like the memory of being stabbing through the heart. It felt like he'd been crying for days.

Harry turned him around and tucked his fingers under his chin so he was forced to look into Harry's eyes. "You mean the world to me, Cisco Ramon, my clever, beautiful boy. Don't ever forget that."

He opened his mouth but he couldn't form any words.

"And I will take care of you, you know I will. I will always give you what you need." Harry rubbed away the tears, his thumbs tender. "Do you know why?"

Cisco sniffled and shook his head. 

"Because I love you."

He gasped. Part of him wanted to deny those words, the part that wallowed in guilt and shame and a soul-consuming sense of inadequacy. But the greater part of him, the part that was grounded in the here-and-now, the part that knew that Harry Wells had no reason to lie, had no reason to try to soothe his troubled heart.

Harry smiled. "You see, I can use my words."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

"Where's my dad?"

Barry looked up from the surveillance terminal. He'd been watching Jay Garrick pace and sit and sleep and do nothing at all threatening for the last hour. Before answering, he lowered the temperature in Jay's cell by another two degrees, to twenty-nine Fahrenheit, just below freezing. It was going to get a lot colder in there really soon.

"Barry?" 

He blanked the screen before turning to Jesse. "Harry and Cisco are working on something."

"Oh? In the workshop?" Jesse looked like she was about to go down there.

"Yeah, but give them a few, okay?"

Jesse looked a little reluctant, but did as he asked. "How's the cold bomb coming along?"

"It's done. Cisco's working on the alterations to the power supply for the cryo-chamber. Maintaining a large mass at such temperatures will require a lot of power, similar to what was needed to fire one of the magnetrons in the accelerator ring."

Jesse asked a reasonable question. "Why not kill Zoom once he's frozen, presuming that the initial freeze _doesn't_ kill him first? Why go through the effort of maintaining him in stasis?" 

"Because we're not killers." Barry knew that this was a facile answer, and frankly, he didn't quite believe it himself. 

Jesse let the subject drop. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure." But Barry wasn't sure he was going to want to answer, given the way that Jesse had pulled her chair close and looked over at the med bay, to make sure that Caitlin wasn't listening.

"You can tell me it's not my business, of course. But is there something happening with you and my dad?"

Barry could feel the burn of a flush starting to creep up the back of his neck. "Why do you ask?"

Jesse shrugged. "Dunno. Just the way you and Cisco talk about him. The way I've seen you look at him." 

"He means a lot to me, Jesse. Like Cisco and Caitlin. He's part of the team."

"Somehow, I think it's more than that." She gave him a sharp look. "Or is it my dad and Cisco?"

"Maybe this is a conversation you should have with your father?"

Jesse tilted her head to one side, then the other. "You're not denying anything." She smiled. "And that just might be answer enough."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, nothing." Jesse just kept smiling.

To his relief, and a tiny bit of embarrassment, his stomach rumbled.

"Sounds like someone missed their feeding."

"Hey, you're too new here to be teasing me about my caloric requirements." Barry checked his watch, and yes, it was well past time for a meal. "You like pizza?"

"Who doesn't like pizza?"

"Joe's Grandma Esther. Refused to eat it."

"Who?"

Barry shook his head. "Never mind. Is there anything you don't like?" He pulled out his phone. Cisco had, in exchange for a month of free meals, written an ordering app for the local pizza joint.

"No pineapple or anchovies, but everything else is good. Dad likes …" Jesse cut herself off. "I guess, after four months, you know my dad's pizza preferences."

"Extra cheese, extra meatballs, extra onions. No pepperoni, no green peppers, no mushrooms. Pretty much a hamburger masquerading as a pizza." Caitlin had quietly mentioned Harry's restricted diet – so pizza was probably a bad idea. But Barry ordered one anyway – if just to keep Jesse from wondering, and it wouldn't go to waste. He also put in an order for fresh bread with butter, which should be okay.

The pizza place was one of the few businesses that would deliver to S.T.A.R. Labs, too, and they had the business credit card on file. "Order should be here in about twenty minutes."

Jesse kept looking back at the entrance to the Cortex. "Do you think my dad's okay?"

Harry had left to talk with Cisco about forty minutes ago, and he figured that an interruption at this point wouldn't be fatal to their conversation. At least he hoped not. Barry hit the intercom button for the workshop. "Hey, Cisco – you there?"

A few seconds passed before his friend replied. "Yeah, I'm here. Just finishing up."

"Is Harry there?"

"What do you want, Allen?" Harry's voice was gruff, but he could hear the undercurrent of concern.

Barry grinned at Jesse. "Just wanted to let you know that dinner will be here in about twenty. Pizza, in case you're interested."

Cisco responded, "Hell, yeah."

Barry disconnected and asked Jesse, "You want to head down to the workshop? Keep them company, keep your dad from killing Cisco, or vice-versa?"

Jesse wrinkled her nose. "Nah, I'm good. Just feeling kind of … dunno … antsy. Like nervous, afraid that Dad was going to disappear or something. It's ridiculous, right?"

Barry shook his head. "Actually, the two of you are doing a hell of a lot better that I'd be doing under the circumstances. You were gone for four months, I'm surprised that Harry doesn't have you on a leash."

"I think he does." Jesse lifted her wrist. "He hasn't taken this back yet. I think he might have a tracker built into it."

"It's possible." Barry picked up a scanner, ran it over the watch. He wasn't surprised when it picked up a high-frequency narrow band signal. "Yup. He's probably got something on his phone tracking this. It'll probably send up an alert if you go out of range."

"Hmmm." Jesse looked at the watch, a little unhappy at the news. "It seems he does have me on a leash."

"It's not like you can't take it off." Barry smiled. One of his guilty Netflix pleasures was a show about a con man out of prison and on a tracking anklet with a two-mile radius, and how much time and effort he spent trying to get off his leash. He'd have to introduce the Wells' to that bit of fun. 

But that was assuming that they stayed. And once Zoom was secured, Harry and Jesse had no reason to remain here.

"Hey, you okay?" 

Barry shook himself and pasted a smile on his lips. "Yeah, why do you ask?"

"You looked like someone just kicked your puppy."

"I'm okay." He wasn't, not really. But that was something he'd have to deal with.

"Could you make a tracker for my dad?"

"Huh?"

"Something that would let me know where he is. It's only fair."

"That's true." He could probably have Cisco adapt some of the tech built into his suit, fit it into Harry's belt buckle. "But he'd know. These things need power – either battery packs or recharging. That's the downside to active tracking." Funny, they never talked about that on that television show.

"Active tracking?"

"As opposed to passive tracking, like embedded radio chip. They do that with pets here – implant low power radio chips. The chip number is linked to a central registry, but you have to scan the animal to get the data. There's no way to – "

"Track the chip." Jesse finished for him. "Yeah, we have that, too. One of Dad's little side projects at S.T.A.R. Labs was a very low power active tracker, but he couldn't get it to work. He wasn't able to resolve the whole power issue." She laughed a little sourly. "Which is something of an irony. If he'd gotten it to work, I probably would have been implanted with serial number 00001 and it wouldn't have taken four months to find me."

"Hey – "

"I'm okay. It's just – "

"Yeah, I understand."

Caitlin came out of the med bay. "Everything all right?"

"Yeah – just dealing with 'what might have beens'."

"That's always difficult." Caitlin handed Jesse a printout. "I finished running your blood work. Overall, you're healthy, but there are some vitamin deficiencies. A B-12 shot and some supplements should take care of that." 

Caitlin took Jesse back to the med bay and Barry let out a weary sigh. Was it only this morning that he rescued Harry? It felt like years had passed.

The scent of pizza and the sound of footsteps distracted him from the incipient funk. He leaned back in his chair and saw Joe coming in, carrying a stack of pizza boxes.

"Met the delivery van at the gate. It seems that all I do lately is deliver food." Joe set the boxes on one of the consoles. 

"And excellent advice. And love and concern." For no reason other than it was something he could do, and something he'd promised someone he would do too many days ago, Barry got up and wrapped his arms around Joe, hugging him like he hadn't since he was a small child.

"Hey, hey, what brought this on?" Joe hugged him back.

"Just – " Barry shook his head. There would be time enough to explain what happened on Earth-2, but now wasn't the time. "Just needed to."

Joe hugged him again. "Joe West, food delivery and expert hugger at your service." 

"Thanks."

"It's been a rough few days."

"You could say that again." Barry grimaced. "Time is so strange. Just before you came in, I was thinking that it seemed impossible that it was only this morning that we rescued Harry, and now I can't believe it's been less than a week since Iris got hurt at the racetrack. In the last five days, I've crossed dimensions _twice_ , I've time-travelled, I've fought Zoom, got my ass kicked a few times, help rewrite the laws of physics and done things that I would never have dreamed possible, even given the fact that I live at the crossroads of Impossible and Improbable."

Joe laughed. "Imagine how I feel? I'm just a cop. I've got a nice family, great kids, one of whom routinely time travels, fights monsters, and rewrites the laws of physics. And I've had a front row seat to all of that. It's a miracle I don't have ulcers and high blood pressure."

Barry leaned against Joe for a second longer. "I don't know what I'd do without you."

"And hopefully, you'll never have to find out."

"Yeah." Barry couldn't help but think of the other Iris and how she was coping with her father's death.

"Bar – "

He looked up. When Joe got that tone in his voice, it usually meant he had something difficult to say. "What's the matter?"

"With everything, I hadn't gotten a chance to tell you. When Captain Singh told me you'd quit, he was pretty upset. He doesn't want to lose you. None of us do."

Barry rubbed the back of his neck. "It wasn't an easy choice to make, Joe."

"I know that. And I understand why you made it."

"Even though one emergency's over, they aren't going to stop coming."

"But you loved your work."

"I did, but I have to make a choice. Between what I want to do and what I need to do."

"You always told me you needed to be a CSI because you needed to make sure that no other innocent person when to prison because of an error, or because someone overlooked something that could have proved their innocence."

Barry ran his fingers through his hair. "I know. But I'm not the only CSI in the CCPD. There's a good staff and they are all just as committed as I was. But I am the only Flash, there's no one else that can take my place. That can do what I do. I can't keep dividing myself, Joe."

Joe rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I know, I know. And it kills me, but I have to agree. I'm just going to miss having you close by, working with you."

"I know, and I'll miss you, too. But we'll adjust."

Joe nodded sadly. "And just so you know, Singh told me that he's slow-rolling your replacement. You've got a month if you change your mind and want to come back. He can't hold the position open longer than that."

"Go back?" Harry and Cisco picked just the right moment to come into the Cortex.

Joe responded before Barry could answer. "I guess he didn't tell you, he quit the CCPD."

"Barry, no!" That was from Cisco. Harry didn't say anything.

"It's all right, it was time."

Joe, who had finally seemed to put his hostility against Harry away, couldn't resist one final jab. "He gave up his job – something he loved – to save your sorry ass. I hope you appreciate it."

"Joe – please." 

Harry looked at him, his expression unreadable, then turned to Joe. "I'm all too aware of the sacrifices Barry has made to help me, and don't ever think that they are unrecognized or unappreciated." 

Barry let out a tiny sigh when Joe nodded. He had a feeling this wouldn't be the last stressful moment between the two men, but hopefully it was a bellwether of change – that conversations between them didn't need to end with bullets or a punch in the face.

Caitlin and Jesse came back into the Cortex and the remaining tension eased as everyone dived into the pizza. Harry, without comment, located the bread and devoured it neatly. 

Unfortunately, the break in tension lasted only as long as the food. An alert came from Caitlin's workstation. Barry had a sinking feeling he knew what triggered it and mentally kicked himself for not taking care of that.

Caitlin looked up from the monitor, her brow furrowed in concern. "Barry, why is the temperature in Jay's cell set to just below freezing? Is this some sort of prank? Jay is a problem, but making him sick isn't going to help matters."

Before Barry could answer, Harry did. "Actually, it is. Garrick's a speedster, keeping him cold will inhibit his power."

Caitlin protested, "But Jay doesn't have any speed without Velocity-9. This just seems cruel." 

Barry met Harry's gaze, and then Cisco's. Cisco nodded slightly. Somehow, his friend had learned who Jay Garrick was.  Barry wondered if it was time for everyone to know.

He waited another handful of heartbeats, but Harry didn't say anything. "We don't know that for certain, and we can't risk him getting out."

"But those cells are speedster-proof. Freezing him – "

Barry cut her off, "At this temperature, he'll be uncomfortable, but the air is still and he's not at risk of life-threatening hypothermia for many more hours."

"And then what?" Caitlin twisted her hands. "I don't trust Jay any more than you do, but this is wrong. We don't torture people."

Barry sighed, but he wasn't willing to say more until Harry gave him the go-ahead. That that probably wouldn't be until Cisco completing the engineering changes to support power supply for the cryo-chamber.

"I know what I'm doing."

Caitlin gave him a disgusted look. "I took an oath, remember? 'First, do no harm.' I can't be part of this, Barry."  

She reached for the temperature controls, but Barry quickly locked her out. "I can't let you do that, Caitlin." Barry didn't want to fight with her; and in any other circumstance, he'd agree that what he was doing was simply wrong, but he couldn't take the chance. 

"Barry, you're better than this." She reached over to his console, trying to override, but he pushed her away.

Harry stepped in and pulled her away. "Snow – Caitlin, just stop. Barry's doing the right thing." 

"Why?"

Harry looked at him, at Cisco, and said, "Because Jay Garrick is Zoom."


	22. Chapter 22

Harry knew the moment was going to come, sooner or later, as soon as he stepped back on this Earth. There was no way to avoid it, no way to skirt around it, and absolutely no way that he could keep Jesse out of this conversation.

Other than Snow's gasp, there was dead silence in the room. Then Joe asked the question that Cisco had asked, that Barry had asked. "How long have you known?"

"Not long, since – " He made a show of checking his watch. "Yesterday. Zoom said something, something I'd once heard Garrick say. Something very distinctive. Something that no one else would say in those circumstances."

Joe spoke, "I know that Barry and Cisco, even Caitlin, have had their suspicions about Jay Garrick, and I do, too. But it seems unlikely that the man who didn't fight back when Barry put him in the Pipeline is the same monster that nearly broke him in half. That's been terrorizing two worlds."

"I don't know why he's staying in the Pipeline. He could still cross dimensions – he was on my Earth after the last breach was closed." Harry rubbed the back of his neck. "I suppose if he moves fast enough, he can move through dimensions. What is in the Pipeline that's keeping him here? I'm missing something." Knowing that the monster was literally in the basement was terrifying.

Barry interrupted him. "I don't know if Zoom just biding his time, or if he's out of power and can't overcome the meta-suppression in the Pipeline chambers. That's why I've been lowering the temperature in his cell. Zoom under full power would probably be too strong, he'd probably be able to withstand anything that's close to a terrestrial temperature, but if he's weakened, then the cold might affect him."

That information startled Harry. "What do you mean, out of power? You mean that Garrick's really is impaired?"

"Maybe." Caitlin explained what she'd learned. "Jay told me that he'd tried to make himself go faster using drugs like Velocity-6, and that's what damaged his DNA. We'd managed to create a temporary fix with a new version of Velocity, but it doesn't last long. We know he's still got speed – we've seen him as Zoom, but I think he needs something to keep him going. And he is dying. That is definitely true. So maybe being in the Pipeline, cut off from whatever drugs he's used to sustain his speed has locked up has weakened him."

Harry tried to process this, tried to figure out what it meant. "I saw him rip the speed out of his other captive. He held him by the throat and pulled the Speed Force out of him."

Cisco asked, "The man in the mask?"

"Yes, and Zoom wanted me to extract his speed like I'd taken Barry's. I don't know why."

Caitlin suggested quietly, "Maybe he doesn't get what he needs when he steals it? Maybe the method he's using to take the Speed Force corrupts it?"

Harry thought about that. "It's possible. But what is his end game? Is it still Barry's speed?"

Her tone subdued, his daughter suggested, "Maybe he's waiting for you, Dad?"

"Jesse?" 

"You told me that you know things about Jay Garrick, why he's not who he says he is. Maybe he wants to force your hand." Jesse pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket. It was the letter he'd written the night before he and Barry and Cisco went through the breach.

The sick feeling roiling in his gut went from a slow burn to a full-fledged conflagration. "That is … likely."

"I'm guessing this has nothing to do with the scientific community in your Central City." The tone in Joe's voice was pure police officer, the detective with twenty years of interrogation experience. "How _do_ you know Jay Garrick?"

Harry let out a controlled breath and kept his eyes on Joe so he wouldn't have to see the look of disgust in his daughter's eyes, on Barry and Cisco and Caitlin's faces. "Through certain … social settings."

"You can say it, Dad. You know him through sex clubs in Old Town."

He spun around at stared at his daughter.

"I can put two and two together. Did you think that Zoom just ignored me for four months? He liked to wake me up and tell me about you, how you were playing around in the clubs when I was chained up in that cell. How you didn't care so long as nothing interfered with your 'fun'."

"Jesse, no!"

"I didn't believe him, Dad. At least not about you forgetting about me because you were too busy getting your rocks off."

"But you thought that … " Harry shook his head, this was not the time. He scrubbed his face, the sick feeling still roiling through him. There was no avoiding this. "Yes, I have – on occasion – visited sex clubs in Old Town. I've participated in activities that may be considered … deviant … by less open-minded members of society. But I have done nothing I'm ashamed of. I have never harmed anyone or jeopardized anyone's physical or emotional well-being."

He maintained a steady gaze at his hands.

Joe asked, "And Garrick?" 

"I had, on numerous occasions, encountered Jay Garrick. Our interests did not coincide, but I had observed his behavior. I did not like what I saw."

"Which was?"

Harry turned to Jesse, silently begging her to leave the room. She stayed put. He took another deep breath. "Jay Garrick is a sadist. He enjoys delivering pain. That – in and of itself – is not the problem. What is the problem is that he has a reputation for not following the rules."

He heard Snow gasp. Thank god Garrick had never shown her _that_ side of him.

"There are rules for these things?" Joe sounded incredulous.

"Between consenting adults, yes. The by-words in this world are 'safe, sane and consensual'. If one person says stop, you stop. No questions, no hesitation."

"And Garrick wouldn't?"

"No, Detective, he would not. I saw him do this, on more than one occasion." 

"And this is how you know that Zoom is Jay Garrick?"

"Like I said earlier, he'd said something to me that he'd said to someone he was abusing. But I don't believe he knows I'd heard him use that turn of phrase."

"Why is that?"

"At the time, we were wearing masks. I recognized him, but he didn't recognize me."

No one said anything and Harry risked a look at Jesse, at these people who'd somehow become his family. No one seemed appalled or disgusted. And to be honest, both Barry and Cisco actually looked kind of intrigued.

Barry finally spoke, "So, Garrick knows this about you. Maybe he thinks he can use it to force you to steal my speed, now that we've got Jesse safe. He's lost one hand, maybe he thinks he's got an ace up his sleeve."

"Yeah. Blackmail – that's plausible. But he doesn't know me. He could take out a full page ad in the Picture News and I wouldn't give a damn." Harry grabbed a chair and sat down, trying not to wince. He was just too exhausted to stay on his feet.

"Dad, are you all right?"

"I'm fine."

"Liar."

"Sweetheart, please."

To his amusement, Jesse took control of the situation. She turned to Cisco. "How much longer until we can deal with this bastard for once and for all?"

"The cold bomb's done." 

"What's the timing from detonation to freeze? If Garrick is just playing us and still has his speed, will the cold bomb be fast enough?"

"The last sent of real world test had detonation to twelve Kelvin in twenty-eight picoseconds. The fastest we've been able to clock Zoom at is five and half miles in …" Cisco checked something. "one-point-six seconds. So, definitely fast enough."

"But the big question is how to keep Zoom frozen. Twelve Kelvin isn't going to last without the cryo-chamber."

"And when will you finish that?"

Exhausted and at the end of his physical and emotional resources, Harry just watched as his Jesse Quick peppered the team with questions, parceling out assignments, working everything like the scientist and engineer she was borne to be. He closed his eyes and let the words roll over him. The project was in good hands.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Joe wished things weren't quite so life-or-death urgency, _again_. _Still_. Because it was really something to watch these kids at work. Despite everything, they were a well-oiled machine, all of the pieces working perfectly in concert.

He looked over at Harry Wells, fast asleep in a chair. Any remaining animosity he had towards him evaporated as his own protective instincts suddenly expanded to include this man who risked everything for his child. As Barry had asked just a few days ago, would he have done any less if it was Iris or him or Wally?

No, of course not. He would have burned down the world to get them back.

Joe let out a little sigh and got up. He went to the med bay and took one of the blankets, went back into the Cortex and draped it over the sleeping man.

Barry noticed, smiled and mouthed "thanks".

Joe sat and watched for another hour, then realized something. "When was the last time anyone fed Garrick?"

Caitlin answered. "This morning – when I brought food down. When you went with me."

"Hmm. Think he's hungry?"

Barry asked, "What are you thinking."

"Maybe it's time for a subtle interrogation." Joe gathered up a few of the remaining slices of pizza. Let me see if I can tease some information out of him."

"Joe – "

"I'll be careful, Bar. A lot more careful than you'd be."

Barry grimaced. "We'll have the security camera on." He wrote down something on a sticky note. "This is the code for the access door."

Joe looked at it, memorized it and handed the note back. "Thanks, and wish me luck"

Cisco looked up and smirked. "Don't you mean, 'break a leg'? This is going to be pure theater, after all."

"True enough," Joe laughed. As he passed by Harry, the man opened one eye and gave him a subtle nod.

At the Pipeline terminal, he punched in the code Barry gave him and the outer door opened, revealing a rather annoyed and obviously very cold Jay Garrick.

"Joe, thank god. What's going on?"

He played dumb. "Sorry. It's been a little busy upstairs. You look uncomfortable."

"Yeah – there's no heat and it feels like it's below freezing in here."

Joe checked the terminal and pretended to be shocked. "Hmm, the readout says it's forty degrees in there. I wonder what's wrong."

"Don't suppose you could get this fixed? Or better yet, get me out of here?"

"Nope, sorry. Best I can do is bring you pizza." He passed the plate through the security slot. "Barry and the others are still working on getting the breach reopened."

Garrick shook his head. "Why are they so invested? Wells will only betray them. He can't be trusted. You know that."

Joe shoved his hands in his pockets and shrugged. "I know. He was indirectly responsible for my daughter's injury. But I also know that it's impossible to stop Barry from doing something once he sets his mind to it."

"Maybe I could talk some sense into him – an outsider's perspective."

"He's not listening to you now. Wasn't he the one to put you in here?"

"Emotions were running high, and I wasn't as sympathetic as I should have been. I let my own anger at Wells dictate my behavior. That was a mistake."

_Gotcha_. "Why the bad blood between you two?"

Garrick didn't answer right away, which told Joe that he was thinking of the best possible story. "He's a liar – he ducked responsibility for the particle accelerator accident for years. He's responsible for all of the meta-humans running around, wreaking havoc on my Central City. He's the one responsible for Zoom."

"But that accident gave you your powers, too."

"And look where that got me."

"A freezing cold cell on an alternate world. And cold pizza." Joe poured as much sympathy as he could into that.

Garrick chuckled. "Exactly."

Joe scratched the back of his head. "You know, it seems a lot more personal than that. I guess you two probably knew each other from your careers. You're a scientist, too."

"Yes, but I'm a chemist, not a physicist. And certainly not in the same class as the great Harrison Wells. I had a small lab – nothing more than myself and a couple of assistants. But Wells and I would encounter each other at events. He was always surrounded by his groupies."

"Scientists have groupies?"

"Wells was like a rock star, he loved the spotlight. Loved the shine, the adoration of the masses."

"Huh. That sounds more like Eobard Thawne than the Harrison Wells who punched you in the face."

"Well, like your imposter, Harrison Wells has a dark side."

"Oh? Eobard Thawne was a murderous psychopath. Is that what we're dealing with? If so, then maybe I can convince Barry to let him rot on the other side of the universe."

"Mmm, not quite that bad as that."

"Come on, Jay – you've got to give me something to work with. Does he kill small animals for fun?"

Garrick chewed on the pizza and gave him a look, one that Joe was familiar with from countless interrogations. It was the look a suspect gave when he was considering the value of his secrets. "I'd rather tell Barry directly."

"Okay. I'll let him know."

"You mean they aren't listening?" Garrick made a point of looking into the corners of his cell.

"Doubt it – too busy attempting to rewrite the laws of physics. They probably wouldn't have remembered to feed you if it wasn't for me. I'll try to get Barry to come down and talk to you, but don't count on it. At least not for the next few days."

Garrick grimaced. "It might be too late by then."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, he's so intent on rescuing a dead man. If he does manage to reopen the breach, all he's going to find is a corpse. Zoom isn't going to leave Harrison Wells alive. Not when he has no use for him."

"Okay. I'll see what I can do. Hold tight, okay?"

"It's not like I'm going anywhere, is it?" Garrick tapped on the cell wall. "And maybe you can tell them that I'm freezing in here."

"I will."

"Thanks, Joe. You're a good guy."

"I try."

Joe bade the man - the monster - a good day, promised to try and do something about the temperature and to get Barry to talk to him, then closed the security door to the Pipeline.

Back in the Cortex, he wasn't surprised to see Harry awake and working with Cisco on the cryo-chamber. The monitors, however, were all displaying the now-closed Pipeline.

"Well? What do you think?"

Barry made a face. "Why do you think he wants to talk to me? To convince me not to go and rescue Harry, or something more."

Harry answered. "He probably wants another chance to turn you against me."

"And leave you to rot, I guess."

"Possibly. But …"

Joe asked, "Is there any other way to extract Barry's speed?"

"He could pull it out of Barry like he did with the man in the mask. But I don't think that would give him what he needs."

"So he still needs you, Wells."

"Possibly." 

"Well, that question will become moot in a very short while," Cisco said. "A few adjustments at the power plant and the cryo-chamber can go on-line. Anyone want to give me a hand? Barry, I nominate you."

Joe shook his head in amusement, but as Barry walked by, he grabbed him. "Be careful."

"Always."

"Don't be a smart ass. I know you, remember? You dimension-hop and time travel at the drop of a hat."

"So retrofitting a power supply is no big deal, Joe."

"I suppose, but just … be careful anyway."

Barry smiled and that did nothing to ease his concern. But he let him go because he had to.


	23. Chapter 23

Down in the bowels of S.T.A.R. Labs, a couple of levels below the accelerator ring, were the massive generators that had been needed to power the magnetrons. 

Cisco hadn't been down here in a few years, not since they'd had to power the particle accelerator up to send the Reverse-Flash back home. He didn't like this place, there were too many bad memories here.

"You doing okay?" Barry squeezed his shoulder when the stopped in front of the generator that they were going to use to power the cryo-chamber. They'd wheeled down a cart full of the parts they'd need to do the retrofit.

"Better now."

"You and Harry talk about what happened?"

Cisco nodded. "We kind of danced around it, never used the actual word, but yeah. We talked. Harry was more worried about me and my state of mind than he was about himself."

Barry laughed. "Just a dick, eh?"

"Yeah. Harry Wells, not just a dick at all. Imagine that." Cisco sat down on a convenient pipe and looked up at his friend. "He said he loves me."

Barry sat down next to him and draped an arm over his shoulder, hugging him gently. "And is that so hard to believe?"

Cisco shrugged. "Yes." He thought about it. "And no. It feels like the truth."

"It is."

Cisco leaned against Barry, enjoying this rare moment of peace. "How about you, how are you doing?"

"I'm okay."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. You're safe, Harry's safe. Jesse's safe. Caitlin is safe. Joe and Iris are safe. Everyone I love is alive and well. We're about an hour away from freezing Zoom and ending his reign of terror for once and for all. And once that happens, I'll be better than okay."

Listening to Barry, something occurred to Cisco. "You always define your well-being in terms of everyone else's."

He felt Barry shrug. "It's the way I am. How can I be okay if the people I love aren't?"

"That's what makes you a hero, Barry."

"I don't know about that."

Cisco lifted his head and looked at Barry. "People can be brave and self-sacrificing. Run into danger without thinking of the cost to themselves. They are heroes, too. But not like you - you get up every day and think about how you can make people's lives better. Even without your speed, you'd still be a hero."

Barry ducked his head.

"And I'm making you uncomfortable, aren't I?"

"It's okay. And don't forget, you're a hero, too."

Cisco let out a tiny sigh. Trust Barry to deflect and cast the glory on others. He got up and started lining the parts up to redirect the power supply. "Let's get this done."

The work took a little longer than expected and they ran into a couple of roadblocks. "I think we need another set of hands." 

"Harry?"

"Yeah." Times like this, Cisco missed Ronnie more than ever. Ronnie knew these systems better than he ever would.

Barry pulled out his phone and grimaced. "No signal down here." 

"Use the intercom." He pointed at a small box mounted on the wall. "It's still working."

Cisco listened to Barry's conversation with half an ear as he started putting together the recently milled parts that they were going to need once they'd reworked the power supply from the generator, but he could hear a touch of worry in Barry's voice as he asked Harry to join them. 

A few minutes later, Harry arrived, toolkit in hand, pulse rifle over his shoulder.

"Is that really necessary?" Cisco pointed to the weapon.

"Until we've got Zoom on ice, yes." He put the toolkit down, adjusted the rifle's strap, and asked, "What's the problem?"

Cisco directed Barry and Harry, and the three of them were finally able to undo the coupling that was giving them trouble.

"Now, back off." Cisco made a little shooing gesture as he donned the appropriate safety gear for working with power supplies. 

It was delicate work, made difficult by the heavy rubber gloves he was wearing, but eventually he was able to redirect the power output from the magnetron to a direct line in the cold storage chamber, the room off the Pipeline where they kept all of the dead bodies.

He stepped back, pulled off the gloves and looked at Harry and Barry, sitting side by side, wearing matching expressions.

"Okay, Tweedle-Dum and Tweedle-Dee, which one of you wants to pull that lever?" He pointed to the master circuit panel for the generator.

Harry asked, "What happens if you've made a mistake?" 

"Nothing."

"Nothing, Cisco?" That bit of skepticism came from Barry.

"Nope, nothing, nada. There's a built-in fail safe that trips if the power surges beyond acceptable levels. I designed it three years ago."

"And did it work then, Ramon?" Harry asked, his voice an almost deadly whisper.

Cisco snarked back, "It did - or it would have, had your evil imposter-doppelganger not deliberately fucked everything up." If there was one thing he hated was having his engineering called into question, especially by Harry Wells. "When we built the containment cells, I tested the fail safes and power supplies on every single generator. They all worked. Now, if both of you are too chicken to pull that handle, I will."

He went over to the panel, but of course, Barry beat him to it. And then Harry joined them, three hands resting on the lever. 

Cisco took a deep breath. He knew that nothing would go wrong, but he still crossed his fingers on his free hand. "On three. One - "

Barry said, "Two."

And then Harry, "Three."

They pulled the lever down and the generator powered up with a heavy whine. Cisco felt the accumulating static in his hair, a natural phenomenon as the massive brushes inside the generator started collecting energy. He let go of the handle and went to the panel. "Power output is at optimum levels, point-two megawatts and holding.

"Gentlemen, we have ourselves a functioning cryo-chamber."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Iris was talking with Joe and Caitlin when the three of them returned to the Cortex. Barry intercepted a look from Harry and went over to her.

"You shouldn't be here right now."

"Why not?"

"We're about to finish things with Zoom. You should be as far away from here as possible."

"Zoom's coming here?"

_Damn_. "I forgot you didn't know. Jay Garrick is Zoom. We don't fully understand why he's sitting so tamely in the Pipeline, but that's going to end in a very short while."

"So you want me out of harm's way, right?" Barry thought he could hear a thread of anger in her voice.

"That's exactly right."

"And what about Jesse? My dad? Cisco and Caitlin and Harry, too?" Now she was definitely angry. "Are you sending _them_ away? And what about you?"

"Iris - "

"Don't you _Iris_ me. I seem to remember the last time you fought Zoom, you ended up with a broken back. And Jay Garrick's been here, learning all the ins and outs of this place. You really think you're safe?"

"We have a plan." Barry was highly conscious of everyone's eyes on them.

"And what is that plan?"

He shook his head. "You need to get out of here, take everyone with you." 

There was a chorus of "nos" and even a "hell no" from Joe. Iris looked like she was about to slug him. 

Harry made a suggestion. "The time vault, Allen. They can go in there."

Cisco noted, "But the one in your S.T.A.R. Labs wasn't completely Zoom-proof. Zoom was still able to phase through the wall." 

"I'm not a speedster. When I built it, it was intended as an all-purpose safe-room. I retrofitted it when Zoom came, but it wasn't perfect. I would expect that yours has a few features that mine doesn't, considering who built it."

Barry still wasn't happy that all the people he loved were in this room, at Ground Zero, but the Time Vault was probably the safest place they could be. "Okay, everyone in the Time Vault."

"Everyone but me." Cisco held up a small canister. "I've got the bomb."

"And me." Harry held up the remote.

Barry knew he could easily take both the bomb and the remote from them and if he could have locked Harry and Cisco into a Pipeline cell, he would have. But they were right, he needed them.

No one made a move to go anywhere. "All right, so what's our play?"

Cisco laid it out. "Drop the canister into the cell, detonate it. Watch Garrick become a Zoomsicle at barely sub-luminal speed. Transfer him into the cryo-chamber and seal the body up for all eternity. That's it." 

Harry shook his head. "No. I want to know why he's done this. I _need_ to know."

"You want to interrogate him? You really want to confront Zoom?"

"You really think you're going to deny me this opportunity? After everything?"

Barry knew just what the monster cost this man, but it still felt too risky. "What if he sees you and phases through before we deploy the bomb? Do you think we'll just get the bomb in the cell and he'll stand there and let us detonate it? We need the element of surprise, Harry. You know that."

Harry went over to one of the desk and picked up a Big Belly Burger bag - it looked like Iris came with food. "Put the bomb in this, put it through the port, then I'll make my appearance. If he tries anything, I'll trigger it. But I need to know, damn it."

Barry remained unconvinced that this wasn't a terrible plan, but knowing everything that Harry had been through, he couldn't deny him this. "Okay."

He escorted everyone to the Time Vault, and once again found himself making his farewells. Unlike last time - was it only this morning - he couldn't escape the sick feeling that something was about to go terribly, horribly wrong. 

He hugged Joe and Iris but kept the words to a minimum. He watched Jesse and Harry and wished she'd talk her father out of this plan. 

To Barry's surprise, Harry opened one of the hidden compartments - not the one the held the Reverse-Flash's suit, but another one, one he knew nothing about, and pulled out a few new pieces of high-tech weaponry.

"Harry?"

"The nights are long, I don't sleep too well." 

So this was how he'd kept busy when he and Cisco weren't around.

Barry didn't make another comment as Harry handed the biggest gun to Joe - it looked like a close cousin to Harry's pulse rifle. 

Joe looked a little puzzled at the unfamiliar weapon. "How do you use this?"

Harry deadpanned, "You aim it. Then you pull the trigger."

Barry had to cover his mouth to mask his laugh when Joe snarked back, "Smart ass."

Harry pulled out two more guns - practically hand cannons. He gave one to Iris. "I trust you know how to use a gun."

Iris got a bit of her own back. "You aim it. Then you pull the trigger."

To Barry's surprise, he gave his daughter the other. "Remember your lessons?"

Jesse nodded.

There was one more gun in the compartment. Harry took it out and offered it to Cisco. "Ramon, you want this?"

"Hell, yeah." Cisco tucked it into the back of his waistband.

Barry looked at his friends, his family, and once again thought how terrifying it was to have them all here, in this one room. If anything happened, he'd lose them all. Because if Zoom got to them here, it meant that he and Harry and Cisco had failed.

Unable to speak, he gave everyone a nod and left the Time Vault, Harry and Cisco in step behind him.

As they walked towards the Pipeline, Barry said, "For the record, I think this is a bad idea."

Harry grabbed his wrist. "I know it is, but – "

"But you can't let it go." Barry nodded. "I wouldn't be able to, either. And maybe you're right. Maybe getting Garrick to confess – to explain, at least – will help all of us." But even to his own ears, he sounded unconvinced.

"Barry – " Harry pushed him against the wall and leaned against him. He buried his face against his neck and whispered, "Please."

Without conscious thought, Barry wrapped his arms around Harry, feeling the fragility of this man for the first time. Memories spun out as if he was caught in the Speed Force – the first moment he laid eyes on his nightmare's doppelganger, the first time he saw Harry act out in violence – ironically it was when he'd almost punched Garrick in the face. So many other moments of anger, and even more moments of unexpected tenderness and need and generosity when _he_ was faltering. He remembered seeing Harry hugging his daughter for the first time in four months, then dangling from Zoom's claws as he'd rushed Cisco and Jesse through the breach. The last memory was of Harry, wounded to his soul and chained in that filthy cell, the weary resignation in his eyes replaced by dawning hope when he realized that rescue was at hand.

"Okay, all right." He whispered back, and knowing just how inappropriate it was, he kissed Harry, not with passion, certainly. But with desperate affection, with all the tenderness he could give. 

Harry didn't turn away, but he didn't respond either, and Barry ended the kiss. He stared into Harry's eyes, drowning in the endless sea of blue. Harry was hiding nothing. Barry could see a lifetime of scars and pain and he wondered how this man managed to stay upright. How he functioned.

Harry started to speak, but Barry put a finger over his lips. "You have – despite everything – tried to give us what we've needed. We will give you this." _How could we not?_

There was a bit of additional pressure and he realized that Cisco had draped himself against Harry's back. For a second, he worried – remembering what Zoom had done – but Harry didn't seem to be bothered. 

For too many long, beautiful minutes, they clung to each other. Lovers, yes, but brothers, too – family in everything but blood.


	24. Chapter 24

Every step Harry took towards the Pipeline brought him one step closer to resolution.

And to breaking.

The cool, logical, intellectual part of him knew that confronting Garrick – Zoom – was a bad idea. 

The more he thought about it, the more he believed that Garrick had full control of his speed, regardless of his damaged DNA. He was sitting tamely in that Pipeline cell, despite all of the technological tricks that Thawne had helped engineer to dampen a meta-human's power, just waiting for the right moment to break free and complete his plan. 

Garrick - Zoom was too powerful, too strong to be so easily contained.

But the man who'd had his life ripped apart, who'd nearly lost the one thing that mattered most to him, the man who'd been violated, _needed_ to confront the monster. He needed to know, he _needed_ the closure.

Halfway to their destination, Barry stopped and turned to him. "For the record, I think this is a bad idea."

Harry knew that, he knew that better than anyone. He took hold of Barry's wrist, desperately needing that physical connection. "I know it is, but – "

"But you can't let it go." Through the rapid pounding of his heart, he could barely comprehend the words, but he understood the reluctance. 

"Please." He hated begging. When it came to him, he _never_ begged, but he couldn't stop the words. He pressed himself against Barry, and whispered, "Please".

Wrapped in the boy's arms, he could feel Barry's change of heart, and he hated himself. He was about to tell them "No, just freeze the bastard and be done with it, it's not worth the risk," when Barry kissed him. The kiss was gentle, sweet, a kiss of peace and healing and acceptance, and underneath everything, _love_. So much he didn't deserve, but so much he needed. He couldn't respond, because if he did, he'd break apart completely. 

Barry understood and pulled back. "Okay, all right." 

He was about to tell them "No, just freeze the bastard and be done with it, it's not worth the risk," but Barry stopped him with a finger on his lips. 

"You have - despite everything - tried to give us what we've needed. We will give you this."

Harry didn't even startle when he felt Cisco hug him from behind. He knew his boys, he knew them to the very vibrations in their cells. They would never hurt him - no matter what the provocation. Cisco rested his face against his back, between his shoulder blades, and Harry might have stayed like this forever. 

But he couldn't. "We need to go. We need to finish this."

Barry let go of him. "How do we play this?"

Cisco suggested, "How about this - you're about to go through the reopened breach, but you want to hear what Jay has to say. You let him finish, put the bag with the burger and the bomb in the transfer slot - "

Harry had to say, if just to reset the tension, "Waste of a good burger." 

His boys chuckled, which was just what he wanted to hear. 

Cisco continued, "Once the bomb is on the other side, Harry - you can make your appearance."

"Sounds as viable a plan as any - going to talk with a betraying murderous monster who might be trying to lull us into a false sense of security." Harry wasn't blind to the risks.

"Trust the tech, Harry. Trust the tech."

Harry wasn't sure he could, and with every step, he was more certain this was a terrible mistake. But this was the path he'd chosen and he wasn't going to be diverted.

Just before they went down to the Pipeline level, Barry disappeared for a handful of heartbeats. He was back, in his suit, cowl down, and the Big Belly Burger bag in his hands. "The bomb?"

Cisco carefully placed it inside.

"The remote?"

Harry held it up and when Barry held out his hand, he raised an eyebrow.

"You need both hands to manage that pulse rifle. We may need backup."

"You're pragmatism occasionally surprises me, Allen." He gave Barry the remote. 

Barry gestured for them to wait at the outer door to the Pipeline. Cisco turned on the monitor so they could observe. 

Harry could see Barry becoming the Flash - not the speedster who too often suffered from crippling doubt, but the hero who would risk everything for the people he loved.

Barry turned to them. "This is it."

Cisco hugged him and Barry whispered something in his ear. Cisco nodded and Harry wished he knew what just passed between his boys. 

"Harry - "

He shook his head. "No more words, Allen. Go, do this now."

Barry nodded and turned the corner. He could hear the footsteps going down the ramp, the whoosh as the Pipeline's security door opened.

Then Harry turned to the monitor and watched.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Barry punched in the code for Jay's cell and told himself that there was nothing to be scared of. The constant chill, combined with the meta-power-blocking technologies built into the cell should be enough to slow Zoom down.

 _Should_.

The outer door opened, revealing Jay Garrick, looking cold and miserable and very annoyed. At least until he saw who was waiting. Then the annoyance turned - for a fraction of a second - to satisfaction. 

If Barry hadn't been a speedster, he'd never have seen it. 

Then Jay's expression settled into concern.

"Barry - thank god you've come. You've got to let me out of here."

There were a dozen different ways Barry wanted to reply to that. Snark and anger and hatred crowded his tongue. But he couldn't tip his hand. Not quite yet.

"No, Jay."

"Barry - I know you think Wells is a good man, that everything he's done here has been to rescue his daughter, but you can't trust him."

"I thought you believed that he was dead."

Jay grimaced. "He probably is - but you're putting yourself and everyone here at risk by going back to my Earth to retrieve him."

Barry decided to play along, spin this out. "I don't understand. You're warning me that Dr. Wells should not be trusted, but I shouldn't go retrieve his corpse because I'm putting everyone in danger. That doesn't make sense, Jay."

Jay leaned against the glass, and if Barry didn't know better, he'd believe the urgency in the bastard's eyes. "Look, I really didn't want to tell you this. I know how badly you were hurt - how everyone here was hurt - when you were betrayed by the Reverse-Flash…" He left that hanging.

"What are you saying?" Barry hadn't seen this play coming, but it was a good one.

"I've been telling you that Wells is dead because I didn't want you to know the truth. I thought if you left the breaches closed, you'd never have to know."

"Know what, Jay?"

"Do I have to spell it out?"

"I think you do."

"Harrison Wells is Zoom."

Barry wondered if Harry would use this as his entrance, but he heard nothing from behind him. So he continued to play along. "No, that's not possible. I saw Zoom and Wells in the same place - "

"And you know that a speedster can be in two places at once."

"It doesn't make sense, Jay."

"But it does - it makes perfect sense. He kidnaps his own daughter, uses that to play on your sympathies, uses you to help 'retrieve' her, knowing all the time that he - "

Barry cut him off. "It doesn't make sense at all. Wells has had ample opportunity to take my speed. And even when he did, he only took a fraction, then confessed to it."

"To lull you into a false sense of security, Barry. You have to believe me." Jay pounded his fist against the cell door. "He wants to destroy you, humiliate you - he's just like your enemy here. He'll stop at nothing. That's why I closed the breach once you got Cisco and Jesse back here. To save you. To spare you the pain of knowing how deeply you've been betrayed again."

Barry stepped back, hoping that his face read shock and horror. "I don't believe you. What you're saying isn't even possible."

"You go back to my Earth and 'rescue' Harrison Wells, you'll be bringing Zoom here and they'll be no stopping him."

"I don't believe you."

"You have to, Barry. You have to and you have to let me out of here."

"No - you're wrong, Jay."

"Please, Barry - you have to listen to me." Garrick pounded on the cell door. "Wells - he's sick and twisted."

Barry made a show of shaking his head and then he put the Big Belly Burger bag into the transfer slot. "I've brought you something to eat. I've listened to what you have to say. That's it." He let the remote slip from his sleeve into his palm and hoped that Harry and Cisco would take this as their cue. 

They did.

Barry kept his eyes on Jay as he saw Harry come down the ramp, enjoying the dawning realization that he'd been played - much like he himself had played the whole team.

Jay rocked back on his heels and said, "Well, this is a complication." 

Harry spoke first, "I'm sure it is, _Garrick_."

Jay turned to Barry. "When did you get him back?"

"About fifteen hours ago."

"Impressive. Are you going to let me out of here, now?"

Although Jay kept addressing him, Barry let Harry do the talking. This was what he wanted, he needed.

"So you can 'help' them take me down? According to you, I'm Zoom. According to you, I've engineered everything that's happened. I've terrorized a city on another world while desperately working to rescue my own daughter. Which doesn't make any sense."

Jay just stood there and just kept smiling.

"Of course it doesn't, you smug son of a bitch. Because _you're_ Zoom."

Barry was ready to detonate the bomb as soon as Jay started made a move. But he just stood there, still pretending to be Jay Garrick, the Crimson Comet.

"How can I be Zoom? I have no speed left." Jay had the audacity to look wounded. "And I was here when you and Barry and Cisco were on our Earth."

"Time remnant. Speed illusion. Or maybe you're working with the Garrick from this world. The one you told Snow was 'Hunter Zolomon'. Which was a nice touch, by the way. Naming your doppelganger after a notorious serial killer."

"You're insane, Wells."

Barry wasn't surprised that Garrick was keeping up the pretense. But he didn't want this to go on much longer.

And it seemed, neither did Harry. "There's a club in Lawrence Hills, a discreet house in a nice neighborhood. I think you know the place."

For the first time, Garrick looked uncertain, ill at ease. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"A night, about two years ago. A man on a St. Andrew's Cross safe worded, but the man whipping him refused to stop. That man's _nom d'amor_ was 'Hunter Zolomon'."

Garrick shook his head, but didn't say anything.

"I recognized you that night, Jay Garrick. I was the one who stopped you." Harry powered up the pulse rifle. "And when you … raped me … you used the same phrase you had after I pulled the whip out of your hand."

"Ahh. _'You are nothing and you will always be nothing'_." Garrick laughed. "Tripped up by my own hubris."

"Exactly."

Right now, Barry really didn't care about Jay and Harry's past. "Just tell us, how did you do it?"

Garrick shrugged. "A combination of things - mostly using my time remnants. They was compliant, up to a point. I took care of them after the second go I had at Wells. After Caitlin turned all frosty on me."

"So - you are fast enough to go through dimensions without a portal?"

"No. There's one I was able to keep hidden. By the way, thank you so much for giving me full access to S.T.A.R. Labs, Barry. It's made this so much easier."

Barry swallowed the renewed fury he felt at this betrayal. There was no point to it.

"Now, I think it's time to finish this." Jay's eyes turned black and his voice took on the horrific tones of the monster, "I'm going to go fetch your daughter, Wells, and then you're going to give me Barry's speed. If you don't, everyone will die." 

Garrick - Zoom - started to phase through the door and Barry hit the remote. The bomb, hidden in the Big Belly Burger bag, detonated, but it didn't seem to work. At least not until he was halfway through the door.

Whether it was by reflex or intention, Harry fired the pulse rifle - point blank and dead center.

What happened next was something straight out of a horror movie.

Half of Jay Garrick's body fell inside the containment cell, the deep freeze making it so brittle it shattered on impact. The half on the outside of the door landed with a wet thunk - the blast from the pulse rifle had defrosted it.

"Is he dead?" Cisco spoke for the first time.

"I would think so, Ramon." However, Harry still kept the rifle powered up and pointed at Zoom's corpse. 

As Zoom continued to defrost, the smell of blood became overwhelming, and Barry fought the urge to vomit.

He tried to breathe through his mouth. "What do we do now?"

Harry continued to stare at the corpse at his feet. "Bag it up and burn it." 

"Good idea." Barry sped away from the scene and retrieved a few body bags and protective gear. But he took his time returning.

The three of them donned Tyvek suits, boots and elbow high gloves and began the unpleasant task of transferring the remains into the bags.

Once they were done, Harry finally powered down the pulse rifle. "We're going to need to scrub everything down with bleach."

Trust Wells to focus on the practicalities.

"May we should give everyone else the all clear?" Cisco asked as they hefted the second bag onto the gurney. 

"In a bit." Harry stripped out of the protective gear and stood there, looking at his hands, an unreadable expression on his face. 

Barry took off his own Tyvek suit and Cisco did, too. The smell of death and blood and shit was clogging his nose, but he reached for his lovers, his friends, his comrades-in-arms, and they joined him without hesitation.

"It's done. It's done."

Harry shuddered, finally breaking. "It's over. I can't believe it. It's over." 

Just as they had not so long ago, Barry and Cisco hugged Harry close, and held him as he fell apart, until he was strong enough to stand on his own again.

Until they all were.


	25. Chapter 25

**Five Days Later, Early Evening**

"Dad?" Jesse knocked on the door frame. "Can I ask you something?"

"Hmm?" He looked up. His daughter looked well-rested, which didn't surprise him. Both of them had spent the better part of the last few days sleeping. "What, oh daughter of mine?"

"Iris and Caitlin asked me if I'd like to go out, do some shopping and some girl stuff."

"Girl stuff?"

"You know, get a manicure, pedicure, maybe a facial, definitely a hair cut."

"Ah, right. Girl stuff." Harry laughed, because honestly, everything she was suggesting sounded like heaven to him. He used to take such pride in his appearance. Back when those things mattered.

"So, can I go?"

"I don't know, can you?"

She gave him the stink eye. "You know what I mean."

He thought about telling her no, but he couldn't. She deserved some freedom. "Okay, but not without protection."

"Dad, I'm not taking one of those hand cannons with me. Or your pulse rifle"

Harry chuckled. "Nope, have something a little less law-breaking. Come here."

Jesse approached, just a little cautiously. Harry picked up her wrist, took off his oversized watch and replaced it with something a little more suitable.

"My new leash?"

"You could think of it that way, but it's also my leash, too."

"What do you mean?"

"It's got a tracking app for me." He put the watch onto a small pad and did something with the computer. The watch pinged. "Now you can find me just like I can find you. This will send you an alert whenever I leave S.T.A.R. Labs."

"Does mine do that, too?"

"Yup. No radius, just some common sense. We're strangers here, Jesse."

"And I've noticed, cell phones don't work too well around us. Cisco keeps complaining about dropped calls."

"We're cellular dead zones. We vibrate at different frequencies, and that's never going to change. I could track you by that, but this – " He tapped the watch on her wrist, "will be a little easier."

"What else does it do?"

"It will send up an emergency alert for Barry if you need to be rescued." He showed her a button on the side. "Press and release twice and we'll know you're in trouble and need help." He ran through a few of the other functions, particularly how to put the meta-human sensor on mute.

"But does it tell time?"

"Don't be a smart ass."

"Okay, so _may_ I go?"

"I guess so."

"Umm, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"Money?"

Harry sighed. "That, my darling daughter, is something I can't help you with. I'm dead broke."

"Really?"

"Really. The money's different here."

"Well, that kind of sucks." Jesse plopped down on the stool next to him.

But Harry had been expecting this. He went out into the Cortex. "Barry? Remember that thing we talked about?"

"Which thing?"

"You know, the - " He tilted his head towards Jesse. "The thing."

"Ah, right. It came in yesterday." Barry fished through a small pile of mail. "Here it is." He tossed the envelope to him.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

He went back into the lab. "I can't help with the money situation - at least not yet - but I happen to know someone who can." He handed her the envelope. "It's in your name. Be smart with it."

Jesse ripped it open and pulled out a S.T.A.R. Labs branded credit card. "Thanks, dad."

"Thank Barry."

"I will."

Jesse gave him a tight hug, then went out to Barry and did the same to him, before leaving to join Caitlin and Iris.

Harry sighed. Money was definitely going to be a problem. 

He could remember the early days, when it was just him and Christina and they lived on ramen and whatever they could scrounge at academic functions. Every bit of money they'd earned had been plowed back into the dream they'd shared. They'd celebrated their first big contract with a couple of double-doubles at Big Belly Burger and it felt like they'd splurged at the fanciest restaurant in Central City. But he was too old to live on ramen, he had a daughter to support, and the idea of sponging off of Barry and the Harrison Wells Trust made him ill.

Months ago, when Barry gave him a credit card to cover his own expenses, he'd tried to give it back, telling the boy that he was no one's charity case. But Barry told him that he'd earned it – after all, he was working to help defeat Zoom. And besides, the Trust was named for _him_ , so it was only right that he should benefit.

Harry hadn't quite seen it that way, but he understood Barry's complicated feelings about this inheritance. But now that Zoom was dead, remaining dependent on Barry's generosity for everything felt wrong. If he stayed here, he was going to need a job. 

And that had its own host of problems. He was essentially an illegal immigrant with the face and name of a confessed murderer.

If he was the same practical, pragmatic, logical he'd been before taking that leap of faith through the wormhole, he'd pack up and go back to the Earth he'd been born on. He could face the legal consequences from the particle accelerator explosion without flinching. He could shield Jesse from the fallout and she'd be able to live a life unclouded by the shadow of his own misdeeds. If he was forced to step down, S.T.A.R. Labs would survive, even thrive, without him; the succession plans he'd put in place would ensure that. 

If that world was still his home, he wouldn't hesitate for a heartbeat. But it wasn't, not anymore.

His hoped his home could be here, with the family that had he'd found in the dark, nearly-deserted corridors of this S.T.A.R. Labs. Not just his boys, but everyone else who'd played a part in rescuing Jesse and defeating Zoom.

Iris West, who should have loathed him on sight, but was the first to treat him like a human being, not some ghost from the past, intent on harm.

Caitlin Snow, sweet and damaged and yet as strong and durable as granite. 

Even Joe West, who'd so often been moved to violence around him, had somehow become part of his family. Two weeks ago, he punched him in the face. A week ago, he'd covered him with a blanket like he was a sleeping child.

No, he could not give these people up. They were his family.

Harry sighed. He'd found a way to survive here, he'd like to find a way to thrive, too. But there was so much baggage…

He worked on a variety of small projects for a few hours, nothing really holding his attention until he started focusing on an updated power module for the comms system in Barry's suit, one that would store energy from Barry as he ran. Ironically, it was based on the same technology he'd used to steal some of Barry's speed not too long ago.

"Harry?"

Barry was leaning against the doorframe, so casually beautiful it stole his breath. "Yes?"

The boy shrugged and smiled. "Nothing, just checking in."

"I'm still here, Allen." He turned back to the project on his workbench, his heart almost too full to bear.

"Good." 

From the corner of his eye, he saw that Barry hadn't moved. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing. Just … just feeling – " Barry came into the lab and sat down next to him, rubbing the back of his neck. "I don't know – weird."

"At loose ends?"

Barry nodded. "And a little off-kilter."

This reminded him of the conversation he'd had with Jesse the day after his rescue. "You should go back to work. Get back to your routine."

"No." He shook his head. "It's not that. I am done at the CCPD – I can't keep splitting myself between the two. Like I told Joe, there will always be another assistant forensic investigator. But there isn't another Flash."

"You're going into the vigilante business full time, then?"

"Hero, not vigilante. I'm not the Arrow, meting out justice. I'm just protecting the people who need it, protecting this city. There's a difference."

"A subtle one." Harry tinkered with the power unit before setting it aside to work on something a little less fraught with meaning. "So, what's bothering you?"

"Nothing major. Like I said, I feel off-kilter. It's been a long time since I've been able to relax. I don't know if I know how anymore."

Harry smiled, a bit ruefully. "Join the club."

"Yeah. Been thinking a lot about you, though." Barry didn't say anything else. He just sat there, staring out into nothingness. It was nice being able to work on something without the threat of impending doom, but he could feel the thread of tension between them winding ever tighter. 

Barry wanted to ask and Harry never wanted to raise the subject. But he had to and it was better to get it over and done with.

He looked at his nails because he couldn't bring himself to look at Barry. "It was awful, what Garrick did to me. But please don't let it color your perceptions of me, of who I am. I will not let that - " The word was sour on his tongue, but he had to use it, "rape define me. Not again. Never again."

"Harry – " There was such a wealth of emotion in his name as Barry spoke it.

Everything in him screamed _stop, be silent_ but he couldn't. "I was once a soldier – an officer in the War of the Americas. I was young and inexperienced and sent into an unwinnable and pointless battle. Half my regiment was killed, the other half taken prisoner." 

He spoke as if he was before a review panel. "The invaders did not observe the rules that governed such conflicts." He pulled off his glasses and tossed them onto the workbench. "I spent three months in an officers' brothel, until I escaped and made my way back to Command. The reward for surviving was an honorable discharge under Section 14 of the Uniform Military Code, as my 'experiences' as a prisoner of war made me unfit for further service.

"I never told my wife about it. She didn't need to know. But the experience shaped me."

He waited for Barry to say something, make some statement of pity. But as always, Barry did the unexpected. He _understood_ what happened and how it made him who he was. "Control. You fear not having control and yet you lose control all the time."

"Very perceptive, Allen. Everything over the last four months has been a battle for my sanity, because I couldn't control what was happening around me." He couldn't believe he just said that. "And please forget everything I've just told you."

"I can't." Barry shook his head, "I can't ignore it."

"Please try."

"But I don't think any less of you, Harry."

He snorted in disbelief. "Really? Aren't I a victim now?"

Barry, being Barry, wouldn't let it go. "Let me ask you this, do you think any less of me for having let Eobard Thawne fuck me? Does that diminish me in your eyes?"

"Of course not!"

"Even knowing that I kept crawling back to him after I realized he was the man who murdered my mother, destroyed my family?"

"What's your point, Allen?" Harry hated hearing about Barry and his body-snatched doppelganger.

"You don't blame me, even knowing that I had a choice. You didn't have a choice, so why should I blame you? Think any less of you? Love you any less?"

Harry shook his head. "You want me to be rational about this?"

"What happened to you when you were a soldier, what Zoom did to you, that only matters because you were hurt - physically, emotionally, psychically. I don't pity you. I don't think you're weak. If anything, I think you're too strong."

"Allen - "

"Let me finish. You're so damn strong you'll break before you bend. You've cared for us, for me and Cisco when we thought we couldn't move forward. Remember that first night? You knew exactly what Cisco needed. You all but despised us, but you refused to let us suffer. You've always given us we needed. Won't you let us do the same for you?"

"You have. You always have, Barry. The both of you have been far too generous."

"And that's the crux of the matter, isn't it? You don't want to be cared for. You don't think you deserve it."

"After what I've done? No."

Barry tilted his head and looked at him, like a hawk trying to puzzle out a potential meal. "This isn't about Garrick, or even what happened with your own S.T.A.R. Labs and the particle accelerator there, is it?

Harry didn't answer. He sighed and looked at his watch. It would be way too melodramatic to play that recording. 

"Harry?"

He sighed again. "I killed someone." Harry picked up the power module he was working on, fiddled with it and put it back down. He couldn't risk looking at Barry.

"Turtle. You killed him." There was no censure in Barry's tone. No anger, no shock.

Harry risked a look. Barry's gaze was thoughtful, maybe a little sad. "You knew?"

"I figured it out. Even money said it was either you or Garrick that did it. Caitlin did a scan and there was massive trauma to the pre-frontal lobe."

"I needed a sample of his brain tissue."

"You needed to figure out how to siphon off my speed."

Harry nodded, the very barest of movements.

"I've lost track of the people I've killed or helped kill. Evil meta humans that were intent on killing me or on destroying the people I love. I would have killed Zoom with my bare hands if I could have."

Harry wasn't going to allow the boy to excuse him so easily. "There's a difference between killing someone in the heat of battle and cold-blooded murder."

"And how does what you did to Glossen different from what we did to Garrick? Even from what we'd planned to do. I told Jesse that we weren't executioners, but putting Zoom into deep freeze wasn't going to be anything more or less than an execution."

"How can you absolve me?"

"Do you want me to tell Joe? To have him arrest you? Do you want to spend the rest of your life in Iron Heights?"

"No, but – "

"But nothing. You were prepared to die; you were prepared to pay for what you did with your life. You nearly did."

Harry let the silence between them grow until the tension returned to unbearable levels.

"What do you want to do, Harry?"

He looked at his glasses and used the edge of his sweater to clean them, and tried to keep his tone casual. "I'd like to stay here, with the people I've grown to love. I think Jesse would, too."

"I'd like that, too." Barry's tone was equally casual, but he could hear the joy in his words.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

There were the things Cisco liked to do, things like spending time with Barry and the team at S.T.A.R. Labs, or perhaps introducing the Wells to all sorts of Earth-1 pop culture, or possibly going for spa treatments with Iris, Caitlin and Jesse.

But then there were the things he _had_ to do, like making an appearance at his brother's latest gig. It had been years since he'd bothered to show up for one, but for some reason he thought he needed to tonight. 

Maybe it was seeing Harry and Jesse, father and daughter, one willing to sacrifice everything for the other, that made Cisco want to appreciate his own family.

Except all he got was grief for his efforts: his mother's endless complaints about his hair, his lack of familial feelings and respect for his brother's great talents; his father's grumbles about his job at some "derelict" hole in the ground with no prospects for advancement; and of course his brother's needling about the absence of his "girlfriend" – likely referring to Caitlin, who'd accompanied him to that miserable birthday party two years ago.

But he stayed for the duration of the recital, clapped politely, and then left without a word. Unlike the Wells or the Wests, the Ramons weren't worth his time. Cisco headed back to the Labs, where he was valued, where he was appreciated, and most importantly, where he was _loved_.

As far-fetched as it seemed, the cold concrete walls seemed to welcome him and he wondered if he could vibe this place, would it know his name?

A few steps from the entrance to the cortex, he could hear Barry and Harry talking, and he smiled. Harry _loved_ to eavesdrop on his conversations with Barry, picking just the right moment to walk in. The man was such a damn drama queen.

_"What do you want to do, Harry?"_ That was Barry.

_"I'd like to stay here, with the people I've grown to love. I think Jesse would, too."_ Harry seemed so blasé, but even from this distance, Cisco could hear the endless well of emotion in those words.

Barry's response was delightfully predictable. _"I'd like that, too."_

Cisco grinned. This was his cue. The pair of them were sitting in Harry's side lab and didn't see him approach. He swiped a pair of erasers from one of the boards, and using all the stealth he could muster, he tossed the first one at the back of Barry's head and the second one at Harry.

And this was why he'd gotten an "F" in gym, because he missed both of them.

"What the fuck, Ramon?"

Barry laughed and scooped up the eraser, tossing it back to him. "Try again."

He did, this time hitting Harry square in the chest. The man's expression of shocked outrage sent him doubling over with laugher.

Harry expression quickly turned to cunning amusement. He quickly pitched the makeshift missile back at him, but Cisco was quick and turned so he took only a glancing hit on his shoulder.

Channeling his inner Marx Brothers, Cisco shouted, "Of course you know, this means war!"

Barry, of course, dodged the pair of erasers that where flying back and forth, seeking shelter under the main console. Except that wasn't what he was doing. He pulled out a carton and tossed a bunch of ammo at him - erasers, de-stressing balls, and a collection of soft dog toys? 

He found himself holding a squeaky hot dog, a plushy fire hydrant and a pair of soft rubber balls when Harry beaned him in the face with a squeezy sandbag. "Ouch?"

Harry stopped. "Did I hurt you?"

Cisco waited until Harry was just a few feet away until he released his barrage.

Harry dodged the hot dog but he was too close for the fire hydrant, which smacked him in the face. Then he pounced, grabbing Cisco and backing him up against the wall, next to Barry's suit.

Cisco wasn't the least bit worried. Harry was smiling. 

"You've been dying to do this, haven't you."

He raised his chin, feeling a hell of a lot braver than he ever had around Harry Wells - at least outside of their private space downstairs. "Yup, for a long time. Just glad Barry rescued you so I'd have the chance." Then Cisco stopped and bit his lip, thinking he'd gone too far.

But he hadn't. Harry chuckled and shook his head. Then he kissed him, right in the middle of the Cortex. "Ah, my Cisco, my clever, clever boy, what would I do without you?"

The last knot of anxiety, of grief and guilt - for what happened on Earth-2 and everything that happened before - loosened and smoothed out. Cisco smiled and kissed Harry back, with pleasure and intent. Harry hummed his own pleasure and to Cisco's delight, he rocked his hips against him, his desire becoming more evident with every heartbeat. 

He didn't hesitate to rock back, loving the feeling of Harry's cock against his. All of a sudden, his world shifted out of balance. It wasn't a vibe, but Harry, lifting him up in a surprising feat of strength, carrying him across the room. Cisco wrapped his legs around his lover and found himself flat on his back on the main console – the one where he worked, day in and day out.

Cisco looked up into Harry's face and thought he'd never seen him quite like this – so happy, so pleased with everything. There were still shadows in his eyes, but at this moment, the chief emotion he saw was happiness. Barry was there, too, a warm and constant presence, his hands on both of them, his lips at Cisco's ears, whispering his own love, his own happiness. Cisco reached out and took one of Barry's hands.

Harry kissed him again, gently, thoroughly, and Cisco felt himself falling into the shadowlands. This vibe, though, was like nothing he'd ever experienced – it was a clear, if confusing vision of the future. He was older, his hair longer and pure white, although his face seemed unchanged from what he saw in the mirror every day. Harry was older, too – but not _that_ much older, which surprised him. Barry was there, of course, and he was just as young as he was right now. They were sitting at a holiday table with the Wests – Joe was definitely older, and so was Iris. There were small children running around, and Cisco knew that they were all somehow tied to him through Barry or Harry. In the vibe, he saw himself taking the smallest one into his arms, a diaper clad little girl with masses of dark hair and Harry Wells' bright blue eyes.

There was no fear in this vibe, just pure, undiluted joy, and Cisco knew that what he just saw was a fixed point. It would happen, regardless of the tide of intervening time.

The vision evaporated like the mist on a hot summer morning when Harry stopped kissing him, Barry let go. They both asked in the same voice, "What did you see?"

Cisco grinned. "We all get our happily ever after."

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::


	26. Epilogue

Jesse felt like a new woman. 

It wasn't just the haircut and the spa treatment, but the chance to spend some time with Iris and Caitlin without the threat of imminent death and disaster that gave her this feeling. She'd met them only a week ago, but it seemed like she'd known them for a lifetime.

After the spa and now relaxing in the upstairs lounge at Jitters, they'd talked about everything, no one held anything back - Caitlin about her pain over the reality of Jay's betrayal, Iris' still lingering grief over her fianceé's suicide, Jesse's own fears about building a life in a world where she had nothing.

"You have us, you have your dad and my dad, and Cisco and Barry. You're a part of Team Flash now," Iris was quick to assure her.

Jesse had to agree. "Yeah – it's true. When I think about it, I feel closer to you – all of you – that I do to the friends I left behind."

Caitlin nodded, "Trauma has a way of doing that – it's the shared experience."

Jesse sipped her coffee. "Can I ask you something? Both of you? It's kind of an out there question, though."

Iris and Caitlin were quick to reassure her that there were really no "out there" questions, not amongst Team Flash.

"Barry and Cisco and my dad – do you know what's going on with the three of them?" Jesse held her breath and hoped her cheeks weren't blazing.

Iris and Caitlin exchanged looks – private smiles that spoke volumes. Iris answered for both of them. "What do you think is going on?"

"I think they are having a fling." Jesse bit her lip, embarrassed by her words.

Caitlin shook her head, which surprised Jesse. 

"They're not?"

"It's not a fling, Jesse. They are much more to each other than that." Caitlin smiled, happiness and sadness warring in that simple expression. "When your dad showed up, we wanted to hate him."

"Because of what the other Wells did – the evil imposter."

"Yeah. He caused so much pain to all of us. Not just to Barry, but to me and Cisco, too. And to Iris."

Jesse knew about Barry's mother, and of course about how Eddie Thawne's suicide had resulted in Eobard Thawne's unmaking. "What did he do to you, to Cisco?"

"My husband was killed twice – once when the particle accelerator exploded and again trying to stop the Singularity."

"I'm so sorry." The words seemed so banal. "What about Cisco?"

Iris answered with shocking bluntness. "He killed him."

"What?"

"In an alternate timeline. Barry hadn't known what happened to Cisco, but the first time he'd traveled back in time, he fixed Cisco's death. That's how Cisco got his powers – in part. He was at Ground Zero when the particle accelerator blew, but it was Thawne's killing him that seemed to activate his meta-human abilities."

Jesse blinked at that. "I'm surprised that you and Cisco and Barry didn't kill my dad on sight."

"Joe tried to. He shot him, but Barry caught the bullets."

"Ah. Oh."

Caitlin picked up the threads of the story, "So yeah, we wanted to hate him. And he did nothing to endear himself to us. He was bossy and nasty and pretty much a very unpleasant person. A real dick."

Jesse had to laugh at that. "Yeah, my dad can be like that – I've seen him at work, at our S.T.A.R. Labs. People really fear him, but they love him, too."

Iris added, "I don't think any of us were really ever scared of Harry, usually we were just annoyed by him. He's very …"

"Dictatorial? Intent on getting his own way? Obsessive?" Jesse knew her father all too well.

"Yeah. I'm not exactly sure when it started between them, but it was after Zoom first attacked Barry, when he nearly killed him. At some point, Barry and Cisco and Harry - your dad - just … " Caitlin shrugged, "found some happiness together. It was like a storm had cleared out. Barry healed - not only his body but his mind, too. He'd been doubting himself, his abilities. Zoom didn't just destroy him physically, he ripped out Barry's self-confidence. Somehow, this thing with Harry gave that back to him."

"How did you find out?"

"Like you. I watch them, and Iris and I compared notes."

Iris nodded in confirmation. "I know some people would think it weird, even a little gross - but the three of them work so well together. And they don't seem to get jealous or possessive."

Jesse wondered if Iris knew about her counterpart on her own Earth, if Barry had shared that with her. She sent out some feelers. "I thought that you and Barry might be together."

Iris grimaced. "Maybe at one time we might have been. I look at him and see my best friend, my brother. He'll always be important to me, and whoever I end up with - if I end up with anyone - will have to be able to deal with that." 

Okay, so it was likely that Iris didn't know about her counterparts. But Jesse still had questions. "So, Barry and Cisco – were they a thing before all of this?" 

Iris nodded. "They've never come out and said anything, but yeah. Barry's dated other people, and Cisco has, too. But whatever they have together makes them happy. It's not our place to judge."

"They make my dad happy, too. It's kind of hard to miss, if you know him."

"It doesn't bother you? The three of them?"

Jesse shook her head. "My dad's not an ordinary guy. I don't really remember a lot of specifics him and my mom – she died when I was four – but he never dated anyone. Never socialized outside of business. Even when I was older. I knew he'd go out, but he never told me where."

"Until Zoom told you."

She shrugged. "Like I said, my dad isn't ordinary. And there are things about him that I don't think anyone knows about, he never talks about. I know he fought in the War of the Americas, and I asked him about it once – I had to do a project for school. He told me that he'd been drafted, he went to officer training school, but he'd only been deployed for nine months before he was discharged. Apparently, Command thought he was more valuable as a scientist than a soldier."

"You didn't believe him?"

"I'm not sure. That night was the first time he went out and didn't come home before I left for school. The next day, I looked up his service record and while there was nothing to contradict what he'd told me, but it felt incomplete."

Caitlin asked, "You think something happened to him during the war?"

"Maybe. And I'm afraid to ask. So I tell myself if he wanted me to know, he'd tell me." Jesse sighed and sipped her now-cold coffee. "And if being with Cisco and Barry makes him happy, then I'm happy, too. Although I think I'm going to need to find another room at S.T.A.R. Labs. Bunking with my Dad in the long term is kind of creepy."

Iris casually offered, "You could move in with me. I've got a two-bedroom apartment and it would be nice to share it."

"Really?" Jesse couldn't quite believe the offer.

"Of course, really. It was mine and Eddie's. I never moved out after he died. Barry lives with my Dad, when he's not staying the night at S.T.A.R. Labs with your dad and Cisco. After Eddie died, I spend a lot of nights at home, and now that Zoom's gone and Wally's moved in with Dad, I've kind of made up my mind to keep the apartment and live there full time. It would be great if you moved in."

Jesse couldn't help herself and hugged Iris. "Thank you."

When she sat back down, Jesse noticed that Caitlin seemed a little sad and lost. But before she could say anything, Iris suggested, "And maybe when the lease is up, we can find a three-bedroom and you could move in with us, too."

Caitlin smiled, but seemed unwilling to commit. "Maybe."

The conversation moved onto more light-hearted topics, like the differences in popular culture between the two Earths. Jesse was shocked to find out that one of the leading political lights in her country and someone the pundits considered on the fast-track for the presidency, Beyonce Knowles, was actually a popular singer with a very troubled marriage on this world.

A little before ten, someone came upstairs to let them know that the coffee shop would be closing in five minutes.

Caitlin offered, "Do you want me to take you back to S.T.A.R. Labs?"

Jesse demurred, "And walk in on Barry, Cisco and my dad? Hell no. It's one thing to know that they are getting naked together, it's another think for me to be in the same building when they're doing it."

Iris and Caitlin laughed, and Iris suggested that they go back to her apartment. She had a full container of mint chocolate chip ice cream and a Netflix subscription to share.

For the next four hours, Iris and Caitlin introduced her to a side of pop culture that Cisco never would - a marathon session of _Friends_. She wasn't sure she cared for the show but she could understand the appeal, and as Caitlin drove her back to S.T.A.R. Labs before heading to her own home, Jesse found herself humming, _I'll Be There For You_. 

It felt very appropriate. 

She thanked Caitlin for the ride and for the evening, and bade her good night - although it was after two in the morning. A little more than a week ago, she thought she was going to die at Zoom's hands, lost and forgotten by everyone. Five days ago, she helped rewrite the laws of physics to save her father from a similar fate.

And tonight she forged a path for a new life.

Jesse was surprised that the room she'd been sharing with her dad was empty, or maybe she was. She'd sent him a message that she was at Iris' apartment but would be home at some point. She didn't bother with _do not worry_ , because her dad would always worry. 

Looking at the still-made bed, Jesse had to wonder if her dad didn't care if she wondered where he was spending the night. No - no, care was probably the wrong way to put it, because her dad cared too much about everything.

Maybe he wanted her to find him. Maybe Barry had mentioned that she'd asked him what was going on between them. Maybe he thought it would be easier this way, rather than having to actually speak of it.

Never one to ignore a challenge, Jesse flipped open her new watch and tapped the app that would locate her father. He wasn't far, just six floors down - the Pipeline level. She wasn't surprised, the morning before leaving to rescue her dad, Barry had taken her to a room on that level and given her the letter her dad had written for her. She hadn't really paid attention at the time, but now she remembered that it had been set up as a bedroom.

Even though this S.T.A.R. Labs was all but deserted even during the daytime, there seemed to be a special level of quietude here in these post-midnight hours. The only sounds were the low, ever-present hum of the air exchangers and the slightly deeper thrum of the power generators. A few yards from the door to Barry's room, the room where she expected to find her dad, she stopped and listened. 

The last thing she wanted to do was find her father and Barry and Cisco making love. That would be just too much.

But all was quiet. 

Until the door opened and her dad stepped into the hallway, hair even more of a mess, if possible, sweater draped over his arm, his boots in his hand.

Jesse didn't bother to hide her grin. 

He saw her, stopped, and even in the dim hallway lighting, she could see the flush rising right to his hairline.

"Jesse - "

She made a little shooing gesture with her hands, "Go back to bed, dad. They'll sleep better with you there. And I'm sure you'll sleep better with them, too."

Her dad just stood there, blinking.

"Sweet dreams, dad. We can always talk about this later." Jesse headed back to her room, leaving her father standing there. If she turned around, she'd probably find him with his jaw hitting the floor.

Times like this, it was good to be Harry Wells' daughter.

__

FIN

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to follow me at my tumblr [Obscene Circus Ponies](http://elrhiarhodan.tumblr.com/), and on my old school (and much beloved) [LiveJournal](http://elrhiarhodan.livejournal.com/) account.
> 
> Comments and kudos are love.


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